Cliched Fantasy
by Lawra
Summary: Ranma and Genma, adventurers for hire, out on a routine mission to clear out some cultists, meet with some very unwanted repercussions upon freeing a mad God from his prison. A deity who has big plans for Ranma.
1. Gods, Engagements, and Holy Fire

"Speech"

'Thought'

**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

X x x x x x

"Man Pop, you really know how to pick em." Ranma shifted to the side and struck a black robed priest in the back of the head, knocking him out. "Fifty of these guys, an actual temple, and some kind of altar? You lied about how much we would get from this didn't you?"

"I did the leg work to get it." Genma answered, having remained out of the fighting.

All of the cloaked acolytes had been pathetically easy for Ranma to defeat. Shifting the small sword at his hip, he looked around to make sure they were all out, the last thing he wanted was some last ditch effort to actually touch him. It was a point of pride for him that he wore such flimsy clothing while most other adventurers wore thick fabrics, leather, or mail. Not him though, he wore absurdly expensive silks or if money was tight then cotton.

Ignoring his old man, he climbed a small flight of steps in the center of the room to a white marble platform raised a four meters in the air. There were eight sides to it with small fire pits setup at the points. Sitting in the center was a reflective obelisk two meters tall. Carved into it vertically were intricate runes that he didn't understand. Having seen enough strange artifacts he thought he had a decent grasp on what certain things meant, and this appeared to be a prison.

"Pop, there aint no treasure here." He commented dryly. The obelisk itself might be worth some money but there was no way he wanted to lug it to the nearest town.

"Stupid boy, don't you get it? They hid it all in this thing." Genma knocked his fist against the obelisk. "What better place?"

"A vault?" Ranma suggested.

"People would suspect a vault." Genma clapped him on the back with a little too much force. "Break it open."

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes and stepped up to the black spire. "But if some demon pops out you get to deal with it." Planting his left palm on the smooth stone, he pulled back his right, and made a fist. With a loud cry, he punched it with as much force as he could muster, the stone shattered like glass. Ranma stumbled forward as the obelisk shattered, apparently being hollow inside, and the walls paper thin. Smelling the stale air that had been contained within, he brushed some fragments from his clothes.

"Where's the treasure?" Genma asked hastily, pushing him to the side, and looking around hungrily.

"There isn't any treasure you stupid old man!" Ranma kicked his father in the stomach and then grabbed him by the front of his shirt. "I told you that wasn't a hiding spot!"

"Freedom." A male voice purred, the air around them reverberating when the same voice breathed outwards, the force of it unsettling the dust on the floor.

"Oh crap." Ranma released Genma, glancing at the remains of the obelisk where tiny flecks of light were forming in the air, rapidly making a light silhouette of a humanoid three meters tall. The light faded, leaving the tall form of a man that looked like he spent his entire life throwing around trolls.

He was wearing bright purple clothing, his pants were tight at the hip and thigh before flaring into enough material from the knee to the ankle to use as a bed sheet. Reptilian leather shoes with a tall platform underneath them adorned his feet. The jacket had wide lapels that were partially hidden by the great bushy beard of orange hair that reached his navel. Completing his facial hair was a gigantic handlebar mustache that from end to end was taller than Ranma. His face was rounded and looked like it should be on a dwarf not some tall mountain of muscle.

Ranma's trepidation vanished and he started to snicker, trying to hold in his mirth. Catching the cross look the giant was giving him, he quickly put his hands over his mouth but was unable to stop himself. Next to him, Genma was already laughing uncontrollably.

"Do I inspire humor?" The giant man asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm－ I'm sorry." Ranma paused to give into the urge to laugh. "But you are the stupidest looking whatever you are that I've ever seen!" He couldn't stop himself and he laughed openly, falling against Genma.

"Am I now?" The giant raised a hand with the palm out and waved it over the room. Rainbow colored light passed over everything and Ranma laughed even harder.

"Even your spells look lame!" He got out through guffaws that died a very quick death when bones breaking met his ears. Looking around the room, he watched the forms of all the priests jerking and moving from an unseen force. Their bodies growing and stretching their robes as pained screams started to erupt from the men. Another hand wave from the giant and the robes vanished revealing their transforming bodies. Some were mostly human, others were completing their change into sheep.

"Sheep should be sheep." The giant man commented cruelly before turning his suddenly frightful gaze to them. "Since you seem incapable of using your mouth for anything useful, you won't ever again." The man said to Genma, his eyes shifting to Ranma. "And you－ who speaks without thought, need to learn humility in front of the Gods. This, Cjork Porir Dnorri, decrees." With a snap of his fingers, the God vanished, his body collapsing inwards in a soft puff of smoke.

X x x x x x

Two months later

Stretching his arms high over his head, Ranma walked along with his father up the stone path towards a secluded home near the outskirts of the city of Nerima. While it was a large city, it was also primarily a trade and shipping city, with a small lightly defended wall around it. Several other larger cities would be attacked before any sizable force could reach this one so defense was seen as a waste of money.

They were heading towards one of his father's friends, a man named Soun Tendo, who was likely a fairly wealthy owner of some training school. The man had a large plot of land about an acre in size surrounded by a two meter high stone wall. At the gate they followed instructions to knock three times with what must have been an enchanted knocker. The gate then opened, allowing them to enter, and likely alerted the occupants to the arrival.

The path changed direction to going down towards where a small building complex was located in the far center of the property. On the left was a big flat platform made from a gray stone and next to it was a dojo structure with large doors that could open the side fully towards the platform. A long two story home was set off to the right along with an area off behind blocked by trees. Most of the property was covered by grass with several trees placed here and there.

This was certainly a nice place and if they could stay a while it would be good change of pace from the endless traveling they had been doing. It was strange that there weren't any students using the facilities. It was a big place that could easily deal with dozens of students, except there wasn't a single one.

As they were reaching the main home, the front door opened up revealing a taller man around the same age as Genma with long black hair and a mustache rushing out. Following him were two girls close to his age, one with her brown hair in a bob was wearing a nice dress while the other with long hair blue hair was wearing practical clothing like he did, slacks with a simple tunic.

"Saotome!" The mustached man cried happily and met Ranma's father for a friendly hug.

"Tendo!" Genma answered back.

"You've lost a lot of hair." Soun joked and Ranma smirked, remembering that hair was a touchy subject with his father. Genma just grimaced in response.

"Are these your daughters?" Genma moved on.

"Two of them, Kasumi is still inside－ she was preparing dinner and couldn't leave the kitchen." The other father answered. "Nabiki, who is seventeen." He indicated the one in teh dress. "And Akane, she's sixteen."

"Say hello boy." Genma barked at him.

"Hi, I'm Ranma." He nodded to them.

"Come in, come in." Soun quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him in the home. There was an area for depositing shoes and looking at the nice wood floors he popped off his worn slippers and traveling pack before stepping up a small step to the main hall. He had seen this style of house before, furniture was kept to a minimum, lots of open space, and large sliding doors that could open the whole house up.

He slowed briefly passing by what must have been the kitchen, the pleasant aroma of a home cooked meal making his stomach growl. In a room with a low table meant to be sat next to on the floor, he was placed on one side of the table, Genma took a seat next to him, Soun off to the left, and the two sisters across from him. Nabiki was sizing him up like a piece of meat while her sister Akane looked annoyed by the whole thing. He had seen the type of look by Nabiki before and Akane's was making him think that there was more here than he knew.

Glancing at Soun, he tried to measure up the man as a fighter. He seemed fit and with as much energy as his father ever had. But considering the general look of the place with bright colors and lots of whites, he had half expected him to incorporate some kind of divine portion into their style, but he wasn't picking up the normal feeling of general peace those places usually had.

"Am I missing something?" He finally asked. His father clearly knew something that he had kept a secret. Soun had a grin on his face that screamed he was excited about something.

"Well Son." Soun was the one to start talking. "Before any of you were born, your father and I made a solemn pact that our children would be wed." Ranma slowly turned to his father with a level gaze. "So pick whichever one you want."

Grinding his teeth, Ranma realized that this was just another in a long string of his father's foolishness that was coming to haunt him. They had finally found a cure and one of the first things his father does is try to engage him. There was probably some other motive mixed in here that he didn't yet know about but eventually it would show up.

"Uh－ daddy, don't you think you're rushing things a bit." Nabiki interrupted before he could show his displeasure at this arrangement.

"This is just the stupidest thing ever." Akane added.

Genma noticed that he was somewhat less than happy about what was going on and decided to say something. "Maybe it could wait a while? You know, let the kids get to know each other?"

"That sounds like a great idea!" Soun responded happily. "Well, get to know each other." He finished as if they should just be able to do so right this instant.

"You don't happen to have some place to bathe do you?" Ranma tried to be diplomatic.

"I'll show you." Nabiki volunteered. She showed him back towards the entrance where he grabbed his pack so he would have a change of clothing. Going out a doorway in the back, Ranma found himself out in the thickly treed in area, a large clear pond was setup big enough to house a large group of people. A wooden platform lead from the house to the side of the pond before transitioning to the large flat stones that surrounded it. "There's a laundry basket over there you can throw anything you want washed in."

"Oh－ thanks." He dropped his pack off.

"The water has a warm and cleaning enchantment. Linens are over there." The girl pointed to a shelf protected by an overhang that had a rack filled with white towels.

"I'm sort of used to streams."

"Ah, well there's a small spring if you head around to the left that feeds into the bath." The girl explained like she had dealt with the type who preferred cold over hot baths. "Listen, I'm not overly adverse to this whole engagement thing but my Daddy is definitely serious about it, so you'll probably be able to hang around all you want. Well－ I'll let you get to it, but don't take too long, dinner should be ready in a little bit."

"Ah－ thanks." Ranma watched the girl leave, wondering about this whole thing. He did want to spend some time among civilization and in one place. For almost two months straight he and his father had been going non-stop. But he didn't want to get married as the price of that.

Shrugging, he stripped out of his clothing, and dropped them into the basket. He would have to ask about cleaning the rest himself. Glancing at the warm bath, he looked over in the direction of the cold spring. 'Screw it, can't pass up a warm bath.' Sliding into the water, he felt his body shift, his mind drifting back to when everything had gone wrong.

X x x x x x

"Pop." Ranma's eyes glanced side to side, currently embracing his father in blind terror, the older Saotome doing the same to him.

"Yea boy?" Genma answered after a moment.

"Nothing happened." He didn't bring up that there was now a heard of angry looking sheep trying to communicate with each other around them. Apparently whatever the giant man had done hadn't taken away who they were. Ranma wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing for the transformed men.

"We should go." His father suggested and Ranma nodded rapidly.

Exiting the temple built into the side of a cliff face, they grabbed their traveling packs andtook off down the slight incline down the mountain towards the small town in the valley below as fast as their feet could carry them. They didn't make it there before it was too dark to really travel through the woods so they made camp and started a nice little fire going.

Sitting across the fire from his father, Ranma hadn't stopped glaring at the elder Saotome since they stopped running. As usual, his father had caused trouble for him, big trouble this time, and while he hoped that the self-proclaimed God had somehow missed them with a spell, he was half expecting to turn into a sheep any moment now.

"I just want to tell you Pop." Ranma grabbed a small stick and poked at the embers of the fire. "If you turn into a farm animal－ I'll make sure you don't end up dinner."

"Oh shut up." Genma answered irritably.

"Shut up? Because of you and your stupid smash and grab ideas I just ended up freeing some God who casually turned a bunch of guys into sheep." He explained, hysterical from what he just witnessed. Ranma had seen a lot of scary things in his travels with his father but that had been a first. A first that was making him shiver.

"It's alright boy, see? We got away without a scratch." Genma was trying to sound casual but Ranma could see his father didn't really think that.

Ranma let the matter drop even though shortly after he wanted to keep talking, waiting for something that may or may not happen was worse than something actually happening. Waiting in silence with nothing but the crackling of the fire was wearing on his nerves. Opening his mouth to try and start some small talk, his throat seized up painfully, and all that came out was a soft croak.

Trying again, he doubled over when it felt like someone had kicked him in the gut. His entire body felt like it was being compressed, squeezed, and twisted. Ranma's world spun at a shocking pace and he dropped lifelessly to the ground, his muscles suddenly spasming in unison. As quickly as it came, it ended, leaving Ranma lying face down and panting with his sweat plastered face in the dirt.

Groaning as he got up into a sitting position, he thought his voice sounded funny. His vision was blurry and he rubbed at his eyes briefly before shaking his head. His entire body felt off, not like something was wrong, but it wasn't relaying the right sensations. Looking down, he gulped when he found that his silk tunic that had a plunged to the neckline which normally showed off his muscular chest was showing off something far different. Bring up his trembling and undeniably feminine hands; he pulled the fabric away from his body to see the tops of two bountiful swellings of flesh that shouldn't exist on a male.

"Wha－ what?" He asked intelligently, hearing his altered voice for the first time, and quickly putting a hand down his pants to find something was missing and it had been replaced by a far different piece of anatomy. Confused over what he did find, he rapidly pulled his hand out.

Across the fire she saw that something had happened to her father. The large black and white form shifted, brushing off torn pieces of clothing in the process. Genma was now some type of bear and like the men who had become sheep, seemed to still have his intelligence.

"That you Pop?" She asked just to be sure. The bear across from her growfed in response, realized that he couldn't speak before nodding.

"I'm－ I'm a girl." Ranma gulped and looked down at herself again and wishing that there was a mirror around, her bangs were now a bright shade of red. Bringing her ponytail forward, she found that the rest was also now red..

Hissing in pain, she quickly pulled off her boots and socks exposing dainty new feet. Her toes cramped painfully, the nails on her big toe and the next over growing and melding together, with the other three doing the same. Rapidly they reshaped themselves so that she now had small cloven hooves about twice the size that her toes had been. The remaining bits of her toes melted away into her foot that reshaped slightly to be more cylindrical, her ankle also went through a change that completely removed the heel.

"My feet!" She cried hysterically, hearing Genma try to tell her something. "What?" She snapped angrily. The bear growfed once but couldn't add anything.

Pushing with her hands against the ground to shoot up into a standing position, she windmilled her arms to try and balance herself. "Woah!" It felt like trying to stand up on the tips of her toes. "Okay－ okay. I'm a girl－." She whimpered lightly. "And I have－ hooves." That was worrying. From someone else's vantage it must look like she was wearing some ridiculously high heeled shoes.

"This is all your fault!" Ranma jumped over the fire to land awkwardly in front of Genma who was sitting on his backside, grabbing handfuls of fur on his chest. "Why do you have to be such an idiot?" She shook him. "And why do I have to be the bigger idiot to listen to you?" She dropped her eyes, wanting to take back that comment because she was unwilling to take any responsibility.

Genma growfed sadly and hung his head.

"Don't play that game with me!" She snarled, believing his sorrow real but she had seen that exact same posture and look before. Her eyes widening and her back arched inward severely as something expanded out from the base of her spine like a shot. Gasping as new nerve endings suddenly lit up, she released Genma to bring both hands behind her back to feel her new tail as it squirmed agitatedly inside of her left pant leg.

Moaning in pain, she sank to her knees clutching her head when a migraine suddenly appeared. Some of her teeth tingled slightly but that was forgotten when she felt the flesh move underneath her hands above her temples. Expanding out were two large horns that pointed backwards along the side of her head in a graceful curve that reversed upwards at the tips that reached out just behind her head.

Her back suddenly drew her attention, and she leaned forward while trying to wrap her hands around to touch her shoulders. The bottom of her too large tunic was pushed up as two wings pushed their way out of her back from between her shoulder blades and flopped down to drape over her body. Staying in position, she waited for anything else to happen, but all she felt was the weird feelings being relayed by her altered body.

Twitching new muscles, she moved the two batlike wings experimentally. There was a pivot point about a half meter from her back, with a full meter to the tip. They certainly didn't seem big enough to be functional but were too big to be some weird cosmetic feature, which meant they were just in the way. Finding the position incredibly uncomfortable with the tail in her pants, she pulled it out, finding that it was a darker shade of her skin tone with a slight spade to the end.

'I'm some kind of tiefling!' She thought in horror. "I'm going to kill you for this old man." She growled, her head snapping to the where Genma had been, only to find that he was already vanishing into the trees.

X x x x x x

Opening her eyes, Ranma sighed, staring across the bath to the trees on the other side. She had forgotten how nice hot water felt and how unnatural this form felt. Even after a month and a half spent in it, she was barely coming to terms with the change of gender, and wasn't even close with everything else.

Her real body was not good with magic, in this one she could almost use it but lacked any training. The only thing she had ever done externally with it was blast her father with a magical explosion. Physically she could use it to morph her body slightly altering the size of her wings from a medium size, a large size capable of flying, and a small nearly unnoticeable size that made them look like hands sticking out from her back. Currently they were the small size for lounging purposes. Magic was also used for flying, making the wings nothing more than annoying decorations.

Spinning the tip of her tail under the surface of the water, she made little whirlpools, and sighed again. Exploring magic would be infinitely interesting except she would have to do it like this. A form that was distrusted and often outright hated wherever she went. Half the reason it had taken so long for them to find out about Jusenkyo was that no one wanted to talk to some strange black and white bear who communicated with signs or the tiefling.

She had thought their next mission would be to find a way to make Jusenkyo permanent but her father had this idea, which for the life of her she couldn't figure out. Nabiki and Akane were attractive but this was so sudden and she really needed to get to know them, and for them to get to know her. Of course this body would cause a lot of problems.

"Excuse me." A soft feminine voice that she didn't recognize called from the entryway. Ranma looked around worriedly, the bath wasn't built for privacy, and the nearest cold water would expose her if the girl walked in. "Hello?" Seeing someone start to peak around the corner into the bath area, she hastily ducked underneath the water.

Fumbling with her hands to find a hand hold to keep her body underneath the water, she finally found one, and looked up through the surface to try and see if anyone was approaching the edge. Some dark figure did appear at the edge. Ranma's ears picked up something being said but she was unable to make out what. Realizing that the water was almost perfectly clear due to the cleaning enchantment, she also realized that the person could easily see that she was here.

Pushing herself away from the edge with the person on it, she broke the surface, and took a quick gasp of air. About to try and pacify the girl who had interrupted her bath, she stopped, and blinked several times. "You're a－." She started to say but figured it'd be stupid to spell it out.

The other tiefling bowed her head for a moment. She was wearing a simple and conservative green dress with a white apron tied around her waist. She was nearly as tall as Soun, with golden hair and matching golden orbs for eyes, and a pleasant smile on her face. On her forehead were four horns placed halfway up from her eyes to her hairline. The inner two were smaller, only about the size of an index finger and were pointed upwards with a slight angle outwards. The outer two horns were larger and had a more extreme curve with the points around to her temples. Wrapped halfway around her feet was a red reptilian tail with a small frill on the top near the tip.

"Uh－ hi." Ranma greeted lamely. "I can－ um, explain." She nervously scratched at the back of her head.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I felt your presence, and came as soon as I could. You didn't happen to see a boy in here did you?" The girl looked side to side. "My sister said that a boy named Ranma was here taking a bath but only you're here."

"Heh heh." Ranma laughed nervously, briefly considering trying to keep the curse a secret. "I'm Ranma." She admitted, swimming over to the edge. "It's a curse, hot water turns me into this. So does that mean you're Kasumi?" The girl nodded and smoothly knelt down to kneel on the wooden platform next to the stone surrounding the pool.

"You－ sensed me?" Ranma asked.

"It was hard not to." Kasumi giggled for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

"You're very strong magically."

"I don't know much about magic." Ranma admitted. 'If I did, I wouldn't have this curse. Or if I wasn't stupid enough to listen to my old man' She thought darkly and hopped up to sit on one of the stones surrounding the pool.

"You're um－." Kasumi stuttered, a light blush adorning her cheeks.

"What?" Ranma cocked her head to one side.

"Not very modest." The Tendo girl finally got out.

"Guess not." Ranma wouldn't be running around completely naked as a guy in front of girls but she didn't think there was any problem with a girl seeing her naked. Guys tended to stare and be a general pain in the ass though.

"We－ should go back to the dining room, dinner will be getting cold." Kasumi hastily stood up. "There's plenty of time to talk later."

"Right." Ranma nodded and watched Kasumi head towards the entryway. Her eyes trailed down to Kasumi's hips that had a little extra sway to them due to the heavy tail.

Getting her wandering eyes under control, she walked over to her pack and got out her flask to gather some of the warm water. Finding the spring that supplied water, she reverted back to male, and got dressed in some clothing that would be able to handle the change well when he explained things. A tunic that was missing the arms and had enough opening in the back that his wings at full size would be able to expand out of without issue, and a pair of pants that he had modified specifically for the tail shorty after being changed the first time.

X x x x x x

Everyone was waiting for him before they began dinner. Genma had a look on his face that showed he was just as surprised as Ranma that the eldest Tendo was a tiefling, which meant that the rest of the family was also planetouched but it did not manifest. It certainly helped explain why there were no students here. He didn't miss the hopeful look on Kasumi's face that died when she saw him. 'Guess she thought I'd be like that as a guy too.'

Eating with the Tendo's, Ranma ended up making small talk about where they had been, what they had done. Eventually this lead to what they had been doing recently which made bringing up the subject of their curses easy. Genma volunteered to say how it happened and Ranma didn't stop him from weaving a simple if wholly inaccurate reason for them going to Jusenkyo. By the end of it, Ranma was not convinced by his father's story, and the family who had heard it appeared to have the same opinion.

'After all the years he's spent lying, you'd think he'd be good at it.' Ranma put his face in his hand. Genma's explanation about the events at Jusenkyo were halting, he contradicted himself, and the whole story simply fell apart.

"What he's talking about is this." Ranma grabbed the flask and doused his father with some of the heat enchanted water. There was a brief moment where nothing happened and then sitting at the table was a black and white bear.

"Daddy there's a bear at the table." Nabiki commented dryly.

"Hrmm, the legendary training grounds of Jusenkyo－ it's true horror has been shrouded in mystery." Soun said sagely.

"So what do you change into?" Akane asked, changing the attention of everyone in the room to him. Upending the flask over his head, she rolled her shoulders, expanding out her wings to their medium size.

"This." She answered, reaching behind to clip the small button in the back of her pants to hold her tail in place through her hole in the top. Due to her changed feet she didn't lose much height, but this body was definitely small and slimmer overall, and even though her hips were close to the same width, her pants had a nasty habit of slipping down without something to hold them up.

"Your big plan to hide Kasumi until he made a choice doesn't really seem worth it." Nabiki told her father sarcastically.

"Well your problem doesn't seem too bad." Soun appeared at her side and patted her on the back. "So are you ready to pick?"

"Oh he wants Kasumi." Akane spoke up before he could answer.

"Definitely." Nabiki added.

"But." Kasumi protested weakly.

"Wait a second." Ranma tried to complain as well.

"Isn't it great Tendo? Our children to be wed?" Genma exclaimed.

"Fantastic Saotome!" Soun answered.

"Hold it!" Ranma hopped up to her feet with a soft clack on the wooden floor. "I can't marry her!"

"Why not? Is there something wrong with my daughter?" Soun asked seriously.

"Yes! She's a tiefling!" Ranma answered without thinking and the conversation stopped abruptly. Her eyes darted to Kasumi who had her mouth open in shock before shutting it and bowing her head.

"Ex－ excuse me." Kasumi quickly gathered up several nearby dishes and utensils, and hastily left the room.

"But－." Ranma looked to her father briefly for support and found none. The other two Tendo sisters were looking at her like she was lower than dirt along with Soun as well. "He was trying to hide her." Ranma pointed towards Soun, remembering Nabiki's earlier comment. Finding that this didn't change anything, she trotted off after Kasumi to go apologize.

Assuming that the eldest Tendo sister had gone to the kitchen, she went to where she remembered it being, and was rewarded with finding the tiefling standing over a wash basin with her back to Ranma while her hands worked to clean something. Bumping her wings on the doorway as she walked in, Ranma shrunk them down, and stopped a respectable distance away from the girl.

"I didn't mean it like that." Ranma started.

Kasumi grabbed a nearby towel and dried her hands off before turning to her. "There's no reason to apologize. I am what I am." The tiefling smiled vacantly. "I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable."

"Stop being so nice." Ranma snorted angrily. "You look more human than I do like this. I shouldn't be saying stuff like that."

"It's alright, really." Kasumi turned and started to use a small hand pump to put more water in the basin.

The small wings on Ranma's back twitched agitatedly at being rebuked while trying to apologize for being an ass. "I'm sorry." She said simply and didn't wait for an answer before leaving the kitchen, immediately bumping into Genma.

"Boy." Genma started to say something but stopped at her look.

"Just shut up old man." She growled.

"I－ was going to show you where our room is." Her father said quickly.

"Alright." Her head bobbed forward several times.

X x x x x x

Out in the yard, Akane had setup a practice dummy on a post, and was trying to hit it with just enough force to almost break it. She had dragged her elder sister Nabiki outside, intent on venting her feelings on her meddlesome sister. Honestly she wondered what sort of joke it was that Kasumi, the sweet and innocent sister had to be born a tiefling while Nabiki, the one who clearly should have been wasn't.

"I'm horrible－ we're horrible." Akane struck a practice dummy squarely in it's false face. "How could we do that to Kasumi?"

"Pretty easily." Nabiki answered casually. "Unless you want a fiancée with a bigger bust than you."

Akane sputtered. "What does that have to do with it?"

"Just a joke."

"Do you think this is a joke to Kasumi?"

"Maybe?"

Rolling her eyes, she did a spin and planted a kick in the dummy's stomach. "And can you believe Dad making us do that? Like Kasumi was some－ some－ ugly servant or something?" That wasn't really how she wanted to describe it but she couldn't take it back. "When he was selling us off like a piece of meat he didn't even mention her."

"Seriously Akane, unless you want to volunteer for the engagement, and remember that you were the one who threw Kasumi to the wolves so to speak, get over it."

"I panicked!" She protested, spinning to glare at her sister.

"And that makes it better?" The brunette smirked. "That your first instinct was to sell out Kasumi?"

Simmering, she had no way to counter that verbally, and beating up her sister was out. Behind Nabiki, she caught sight of one of their new houseguests walking out of the home. The cursed teen had not changed back and Akane wondered why. From his outburst earlier he clearly had a low opinion of tieflings. The red head noticed them, paused, and then headed off away from them towards the main gate.

"What's he doing?" She asked herself.

"Hmm?" Nabiki twisted her neck around to see Ranma before shrugging. "I'm going back inside."

Not paying attention to her sister, Akane finished off her training dummy with a blind back kick that knocked it off it's perch to go skittering across the stone platform. Taking a deep breath, she stormed across the grounds to where Ranma had stopped to go through a combat form. The cursed boy was moving slowly and deliberately, in a way that showed she was well used to the body, and had not simply been changed two weeks prior. Akane paused briefly, remembering how Ranma hadn't seemed to care that much about being cursed. Upset over being a tiefling yes, but from what Genma had said, Ranma had been beyond reason with rage. Watching Ranma slip on the grass and fall on her backside, she couldn't stop herself from laughing.

"What's so funny?" The red head asked angrily, pouting cutely.

"You really hurt Kasumi with what you said." She chose to ignore the angry exclamation.

"Yea well, from what I've seen you people aren't that great to her either." Ranma stood up, standing taller than Akane by a few centimeters. Glancing downwards, Akane noted the way the red head had to stand, and figured that she would be shorter than her without the inhuman feet.

"You haven't even been here a half day and you think you can make a judgment like that?" Akane bristled at the tiefling's comment.

"Whatever, I'll be gone as soon as I can figure out where I might find something that'll lock the curse." Ranma bounced on her feet momentarily before moving into another form.

Standing in an uncomfortable silence, Akane considering challenging Ranma to a spar, but having seen the Saotome boy slip on the grass she figured that his cursed form was too clumsy to be a threat. Tomorrow when he was back in his real body she would do it. Without having anything more to say and Ranma appearing to be the same, she nonchalantly walked away from the red head to go take a bath before going to bed.

X x x x x x

Ranma took two quick steps before opening her wings and shooting off into the night sky. Leveling off from her steep climb, she stopped focusing magic to simply glide out over the city. Nerima had a lighting system setup that kept a soft glow over the streets, and then there was the light coming from homes but that would soon go out, leaving just the street light to illuminate her flight. Finding herself a bit too low, she flapped her large wings, and gained more height.

Flying and the possibility to learn magic were the only two good points about this form. Being in the air, untethered to the ground, she found it impossible to care about any troubles in her life, everything simply fell away. The heavy feeling she got in her chest being around normal people or even thinking about it vanished. The worry she sometimes felt that her life would be interrupted again by that crazy God, left her. Even the fear that she would find Jusenkyo no longer working was pushed to the back of her mind.

The first attempts she and Genma had made to find a cure was transformation magic. Simple spells that could disguise someone as something else all failed. More powerful ones that literally changed the body to something else didn't work either. The magic that had been cast on them was powerful and it seemed that the God didn't want anyone playing with his work. Jusenkyo was the only thing that worked and the first time it had been a halting and jerking change that repeatedly threatened to simply go backwards. Now it worked smoothly in both directions, though she had noticed that it was always faster with hot water.

Forgetting about that, she swung away from some clouds that were coming in from the East. There were some worries she couldn't just ignore. Getting wet flying through clouds would activate the curse magic and lead to a long fall down. Having learned her lesson once, she kept well away from any clouds.

Passing over a largish estate on her way back, a bright flash of light caught her eye from down below. Ranma had a moment to twist out of the way so the sharp beam of yellowish white light only struck her right wing. White hot pain raced through her body, the magic that kept her in the air cutting out, and she dropped like a stone. Landing painfully on a wall, she was twisted awkwardly before hitting a stone road, hard.

"Damn it." She clutched at the side that had hit the wall, glad that no bones were broken. Shrinking her wings, she got up to her feet, and fell backwards to lean against the wall.

"Hold vile fiend!" A male voice called out, accompanied by rapid footsteps down the road towards her.

"I'm not a vile fiend." She protested and pushed away from the wall to face her attacker. He was taller than her by nearly a head and had short hair. Dressed in white, the only part of his clothing notable was the gold embroidered tunic that reached his knees, and was bound at his waist with a belt. Clutched in his right hand was a wooden sword while his left hand was held across his chest horizontally.

"I, Tatewaki of the house Kuno shall send you back to your vile plane of existence!" he announced and pointed his left hand at her. "**Bolt of light that cleaves the dark of night, reside in my hand and devour my unholy enemy, Holy beam**!"

"This is my plane of existence!" Ranma answered him, hard pressed to avoid the condensed beam of yellow light that nearly struck her in the chest. Instead of remaining far away, her attacker closed the distance, and started to attack her with the wooden sword. Almost slipping on the stone, she avoided the strange weapon, to put some distance between them.

"Will you listen to me? I'm cursed to be this way." She tried to explain.

"A likely story!" The boy sliced at her with the sword from a distance. Confused over why he would do that, she was struck by something sharp from her left shoulder to her right hip. Falling backwards, she slid a meter on the stone before coming to a stop.

"What the?" She looked down at her destroyed tunic, the front hanging open exposing her left breast, a thin red line of blood marked where whatever it was had cut her.

"You must be strong to withstand my blade fiend." Tatewaki announced, waving his hands in a complicated seal.

"If you would just listen, I'm a tiefling." Getting to her feet, she froze, and looked down at a circle of light that appeared on the ground under her feet.

"**Obey me Mistress of fire! Grant to me your flame of purification and flow out your fire and sulfur, turn all sinners into dust! Vulcanis Animus**!" The boy announced dramatically and pointed his right hand towards her feet.

Ranma's entire world became one unending moment of pain and bright light. Coming out the other side, she coughed out a small puff of smoke, her entire body covered by black marks and a small fire burning at the tip of her tail.

"You're still alive?" Kuno asked incredulously.

"Tiefling－ not an actual－ demon." She wavered on her hooves before toppling over unconscious.

X x x x x x

Waking up, Ranma briefly ran her hands along the soft linens that she was wrapped up in. Opening up her eyes and sitting up, the covers fell off of her body revealing a sheer white negligee with small golden patterns in several places. Grimacing at how feminine of a garment it was and how much it showed off her bust, she threw off the rest of the covers and hopped out of the bed. Blinking, she wondered who had brought her to what appeared to be a noble's home, and why it had to be such an obviously feminine room.

A large and complex vanity dominated one side of the room, a doorway and closets another and a large window on the other with white satin curtains blocking the view outside. Everything was primarily white, then gold, and some of the furniture had a natural wood color to it. Looking around for her clothes she couldn't find them, and glancing down at the almost healed cut that ran down her body she realized that the tunic would have been a lost cause. Anything capable of cutting her skin must have cut through the cloth as well.

'Wait a minute, who changed my clothes, and cleaned me up?' She stopped, a vision of her attacker doing that made her shiver. 'Alright, first order of business is to get some clothes and then get out of here.' Digging through the closet, she found them empty. About to head out the door, she took a step away from it and prepared to defend herself when the handle turned. Opening the door was indeed Kuno who was holding a tray with a plate of food and some orange juice.

"I was just coming to wake you." Tatewaki noted like she was some kind of close friend.

"First you attack me and now you're bringing me breakfast?" Ranma asked incredulously.

"It is merely my attempt at an apology." He answered. "I am prone to acting without thinking and with how powerful you are I thought it would be best not to ask too many questions."

"I guess it's alright." Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she took a closer look at the food since she was hungry. Being randomly attacked had always been a part of her life. Thankfully it seemed this guy had just made a mistake and now wanted to make up for it. The comment about being powerful made her think of Kasumi being able to find her in the bath. Maybe she had to learn more about magic and suppress whatever passive presence she had to avoid more trouble like last night.

"I should properly introduce myself, I am Tatewaki Kuno, cleric of the Goddess Mico." He greeted dramatically.

"Uh－ Ranma Saotome." She introduced herself. "You don't happen to have what's left of my clothes do you?"

"Your blouse was beyond repair and will be replaced while the rest is being laundered."

"Uh－ thanks." It didn't take her long to finish off the food. While she was eating though she kept an eye on the other teen. First he knocks her out of the sky, hits her with some very painful holy spell, and now she was being waited on? That was a really suspicious change of heart. She didn't miss that he was examining her as well.

"You said you were cursed to be this way. Did you mean by your birth or some other means?"

"Other." She answered. "If you get my clothes and a glass of cold water I'll show you." Getting out of this girlish dress and back in her real body would be nice. Kuno nodded and gathered up the tray of food before leaving the room. She didn't hold out much hope that he would know how to do anything about the curse but he might be a contact, someone who might know someone.

Opening up the curtains to look outside and try to figure out where she was, Ranma recognized the estate from flying last night by the large pond on the property. The Kuno's were certainly well off, unlike the Tendo's who were closer to the city limits, the Kuno's lived near the center in a rich district on a plot of land the same size. Unable to really see anything other than the surrounding wall and the buildings past that, she briefly considered simply flying away before shutting the curtain.

"So who cleaned me up?" She asked when Kuno returned.

"My sister." He answered quickly, placing her pants, and a new tunic on the bed. "The water you wanted." Kuno handed her a cup.

"Thanks." Setting the cup off to the side, she pulled on the pants, and was about to pull off the negligee when she noticed that Kuno was staring. "Ya mind?" Ranma asked. Having little to no modesty, that didn't mean she was going to give someone a free show. She would have to be an idiot to not notice that if she removed the inhuman features she would be fighting off suitors.

"Sorry." Kuno hastily turned around.

Removing the negligee, she pulled on the replacement tunic, her wings tenting the material in the back but that would no longer be an issue after she used the water. "Alright." Getting the cup of water, she made sure she had his complete attention. "This is my cursed form, cold water changes me back." She explained and he looked to be struggling with that.

"Just watch." Upending the cup of water over her head, her body was changed back into a human male. "See? This is the real me." Or as close to the real him as he could get since there was a tiny bit of difference. Either by forgetting after all the time spent in the tiefling body or actual ones.

"The real you?" Kuno asked, shocked by the transformation.

"Yea, that other body is a curse." Ranma was about to ask if Kuno might know anybody who knew about curses when he interrupted him.

"So you have been possessed!" Kuno declared.

"No, I'm not possessed." He tried to explain.

"I see it so clearly now. A fiend has placed you under her terrible sway and now clouds your mind with her vile temptations." Tatewaki grabbed him by the shoulders and stared deeply into Ranma's eyes. "Do not worry Ranma Saotome, I swear to Mico that I shall free you from that red haired abomination."

Ranma blinked several times, on one hand that was what he wanted, on the other, Kuno did not seem to be paying attention to him. "I think I'll be going." Ranma tried to get away.

"Do not worry Saotome, fight the temptation of her charms."

"Well while I'm fighting that temptation, I'm going to do it far away from you." Finally able to brush the demented cleric's hands off of him, he used the window to make a quick exit.

X x x x x x

On the way back to the Tendo estate, Ranma ended up having to deal with the traffic in a series of streets that focused on selling food. Compared to flying over it last night, he was feeling slightly claustrophobic. His time spent in larger cities was small, spending most of his life in the wilderness or small villages.

Thinking about using Kuno as a way to find information about the curse, lead him to consider the problems with that. Curses were something that were cured but he needed it to be altered to be permanent. Would he be able to find such a thing among the holy? The God's own change to his body hadn't shown up as a curse but a protection against changes, which is what had lead them to look for a powerful curse. He was probably lucky that the loony cleric hadn't made an attempt to remove Jusenkyo.

Maneuvering through the crowd, he was surprised to bump into someone since he was being careful. There was a soft feminine oof and the woman he had bumped into fell to the road; spilling the bundle that she was carrying.

"I'm sorry." He assumed that he had accidently hit the woman with far too much force. As he held out his hand to help her up, he immediately noticed her long bright red hair, some of which had fallen over her face. She slowly used a hand to brush it off to the side, before taking his hand. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She answered in a breathy voice and took his hand to be helped to her feet. The woman was pale, had bright blue eyes, was the same height as him, and was wearing a form hugging black dress with a daring neckline that showed off a very attractive body.

"Lemme pick these up for you." He offered, quickly shoving the items into a burlap sack she had been carrying them in. "Here." He handed it to her. "Sorry again."

"Thank you." She slung the bag over her shoulder before staring into his eyes. "You look－ familiar, what is your name young man?"

Ranma couldn't remember doing anything that would come back to haunt him with a woman like this. "Ranma."

"Saotome?" She asked hopefully.

"How'd you know that?" He asked, his concern rising.

"Can it really be you?" She asked in wonder, eyes sparkling as she held back tears.

"Sorry I've never met you before."

"Is your father Genma?"

"Yea." He drawled.

"My son!" She cried happily and hugged him.

X x x x x x

Author Notes:

Since it is so ridiculously vague, the Goddess Mico, or latin for "shine" is actually a very long distance reference to the author Sunshine Temple, the owner of Fukufics. Who I was talking to while writing up that scene about some of the things I thought off about "The Return" in this instance what I thought was a bit of an unfair treatment towards Kuno. So I thought it would be a little bit of cosmic irony for Kuno to worship Ranma-chan while at the same time wanting to actually cure Ranma of Ranma-chan.

Genma is a panda, but no one has any clue what a panda is.

x X x

Most races are xenophobic and end up separate from the others. This is not a universal rule and varies depending on location.

**Tiefling** - generic term given to individuals who have a demonic parent or have a demon in their lineage. It can skip generations and the odds of a tiefling appearing after successive generations without an influx of demon blood drops significantly. Usually they have demonic features regardless of distance from the source, sometimes looking even less human than their demonic parent. While not always being aligned with evil, their magic always is, and use of holy spells is all but impossible.

Telling tieflings apart from demons can be difficult based on looks alone, but since demons tend to remain on their plane of existence unless summoned for some purpose, if they are on the Earth plane, they would not appear out of place or would likely be doing something noticeably evil. This requirement to wait and see means that most people are wary of any tiefling but even more so of ones that hide what they are. Some nations even require them to notify authorities in order to keep tabs on their numbers.

**Magic** is broken into three categories, Demonic, Neutral, and Holy. Neutral spells can be cast by anyone while the other two can require specific alignments set by who their parents are. Demonic and Holy spells at their base draw power from deities on either sides. Lower level spells draw on the entire pantheon, while higher ones are attuned for one specific deity. Calling on the power of a deity for a spell does not require worship or making a pact but it does alert the deity to the usage and they can cancel access at any time. Normally they do not restrict access, being uncaring of what happens on the mortal planes. Sometimes they may take interest and grant the caster more powerful spells inaccessible to others. Neutral spells draw on ambient magical energies and are limited in their power by how much is available and the range that a caster can draw from. They also exhaust the area of magic, stopping further magic from being used while it is regenerated.


	2. A Mothers Tender Loving Care

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

X x x x x x

"So if you're my mom." Ranma paused as the woman set down a cup of tea in front of him. "Where have you been?" After the initial shock, she had taken him to her home, an apartment above a store that sold clothing. Her name was Nodoka and her apartment was furnished with nice amenities. Clearly she was someone who enjoyed creature comforts and was capable of performing magic, using it to heat up a kettle of water for tea.

"It wasn't by choice." She sat down across from him at a simple wooden table with her own cup of tea. "What did Genma tell you about me?"

"He never mentioned you." He answered honestly. Obviously he had a mother but he had simply assumed that she had died.

"I'm not surprised, not after what he's done." Nodoka set her cup down and held it between both hands before taking a haggard breath.

"What did he do this time?" Having been the scapegoat for Genma's schemes he was apt to believe he had done something really stupid.

"He took everything from me." The woman across the table looked away from him, her red hair falling down to obscure her face. He didn't know what to do, she was clearly distraught, and simply sitting there was very uncomfortable. "It was－ almost seventeen years ago now. He came to my room one night to steal my lingerie to appease a horrible little gnome. I repelled him from my chamber but he returned again and again. He was obsessed."

"Pop can be a bit obsessive." He thought absently. The story wasn't making much sense to him but she sounded very sure of herself.

"I had to deal with his advances for a month before he brought the gnome with him." Nodoka shivered. "They changed me into something they could bind and control."

"Pop wouldn't do that." Ranma said with conviction. Stupid, greedy, a glutton, an oaf, and many other undesirable qualities were exemplified in Genma but to do some sort of mind control? It was too much.

"Maybe it would be best if I showed what I've become." She rose from her chair and moved to an open part of the room. "Please don't be alarmed." Nodoka's skin became a shade paler, her hair grew till it reached her legs, spreading out behind her were large black bat wings, and a slender tail with a spade on the end curled nervously around her legs.

"You're a demon!" He shot up from the chair sending it clattering to the floor, and took a step back towards the door.

"I am now." The succubus looked down.

"What's the deal? Why are you trying to make it seem like your my mom?"

"Because I am." Her wings shrunk down to a medium size and she came towards him.

"Yea right, I'd know if I was part demon or not." He scoffed, putting the table between them. Succubae weren't known for being fighters but they had other tricks.

"Genma wanted a son, a human son, and like this I could be controlled and give him one by transforming myself into a human." She explained, standing across from him. "I carried you to term and when you were old enough he took you, leaving me as I am, my life in ruins."

"No－ that's not－." Looking into her eyes that seemed even bluer, he understood how serious she was, and his desire to contradict her crumbled.

"I'm sorry, I wish there could have been some way to prepare you." Nodoka fluidly moved around the table.

"I－ I'm sorry too." He remembered his own change and wanted to hit himself for being so judgmental for someone else who had also gone through such a thing. It was just like yesterday with Kasumi. Ranma didn't notice until Nodoka had rested her hand on his right should but when he did he pulled away.

"Just because I'm a demon doesn't make me evil." She said sadly. "You don't have to fear me."

"I know." He said quickly. "I've had to deal with that too."

"But you're human, why would anyone suspect evil from you?" She asked, clearly confused.

"You're not the only one with a secret." His shoulders slumped and he grabbed kettle to pour water over his head. Nodoka gasped as the change washed over him. "Some more of Pop's stupidity."

"You." Nodoka paused. "He did it to you too."

"Not purposely." Ranma defended Genma a little bit.

"You're beautiful." Nodoka gazed at her fondly.

"I'm a guy." She really wanted to make that clear before her vanity kicked in. "And how could I look good like this?"

"He looks at you with disgust when you're like this, doesn't he?" Nodoka shifted the subject.

"Pop? No－ well once or twice." Looking away, she thought back when they had been first changed she could remember some of the sideways glances. She had thought they were just because he was so depressed over the situation. Could it be that he was thinking about what she might have looked like if he hadn't forced Nodoka to make a human child after he had been the one to change her into a demon?

"It's alright." Nodoka ran a hand along one of her horns, an action she only felt pushing down on where it connected to her head. "How long has it been?"

"Two months." Ranma answered, being caught again by Nodoka's eyes.

"It's horrific isn't it? To be so alone?" The succubus moved in closer, their breasts barely touching, and reached behind Ranma's back to feel her small wings through her tunic. "In a strange body you know nothing about." Nodoka's hand trailed down her back to find her tail and slowly run her hand down its length. Ranma shivered and bit back a whimper from the strange sensation as her mother ended up bringing the appendage to the front before letting it go. "And hated by those around you."

Ranma nodded, remembering early difficulties, and being surprised at how much more painful they felt now.

"Don't you want to make him pay for your pain? Our pain?" Nodoka placed both her hands on Ranma's slim waist.

"He probably needs to learn a lesson." Ranma agreed, wishing she had eyes like Nodoka. The more she gazed into them, the more she could see and the more she could see, the more she wanted to.

"We can do it together. Just you and me." The succubus draped her wings partially around Ranma.

Ranma nodded again and Nodoka smiled lovingly at her. 'Genma's going to pay for what he did to us.'

X x x x x x

Later that night

"I did it." Ranma couldn't keep the smile off of her face as she looked herself up and down in the mirror. Wiggling her toes, that smile increased at being able to do such a simple thing. Turning around, there was no sign of her wings or tail, and the sides of her head were absent of any horns. It was just a disguise spell and didn't stop her from being a tiefling but it was a start. All it had taken was a full day of learning some magic basics and several hours of trying to cast it, but she had done it.

"Hmm." Nodoka appraised her form but without giving comment.

"This is going to drive Pop up a wall." She snickered. It wasn't real control over the curse but at least this way she wouldn't be noticeably different and she would be working to appear male as well rather than just human. "Hey why did this work? All the other disguise spells we tried before Jusenkyo didn't work at all."

"Maybe it's because you were the one to cast it?" Her mother suggested, hugging her by the shoulders. "I'm proud of you."

Ranma blushed in embarrassment at the praise and touch. Nodoka was so different from what she expected from a demon. She was very into physical contact which she supposed fit with a succubus, but at the same time she had given more praise in the short time she had known her than Genma had in her whole life. Not that Genma didn't praise her but it was usually more of an offhand comment about how she didn't screw up. Nodoka was annoying in that she was clearly more interested in her female form. Ranma had little clue to how a mother would act towards a daughter but she was reasonably certain that was what was going on.

"Is something wrong?" Nodoka asked, lifting Ranma's chin to look up into her face. Now that Ranma no longer had hooves she actually felt small from the sudden drop in height.

"It's just weird that you're a demon but you're so." Ranma trailed off.

"I just want to be a good mother." The other red head looked hurt at Ranma's insinuation.

"Sorry."

"It's alright." Nodoka moved a hand down to rub at Ranma's lower back in small circles. "You should get back to Genma, he'll be suspicious if you're gone too long."

"Yea." Ranma glanced back at the mirror and let the spell drop, her body quickly gaining it's demonic features back, and wings going through slits she had cut in the donated tunic. That she was learning magic was going to be a surprise, a surprise that would hopefully hurt Genma as much as he had hurt them. She didn't want to leave though, after being reunited with her mother, it felt wrong to leave without any thought to more meetings.

"Don't worry, I won't be going anywhere." Nodoka lightly touched Ranma's wings that were at their medium size.

"Alright, but I'll be back soon." Ranma decided to come back literally as soon as she could. There was so much she still wanted to know about Nodoka. Maybe how much she knew about demons. Considering her experience with a God, maybe some demons just had a bad reputation.

X x x x x x

Flaring her wings, Ranma hovered over the ground momentarily before cutting out her magic, and landing in front of her father and Soun who were playing some board game on a veranda that opened up towards the training platform. Genma was actually in his two toned bear form and had a towel wrapped around his head like he actually had hair to dry.

#Where ya been boy?# Genma held up one of the magical wooden signs he had picked up that showed a message that he created.

Ranma bit back the urge to start berating her father for what he had done. 'Look at him, sitting there like nothing has happened, like he's not even been changed into some weird bear.' She bit her tongue, remembering that her mother had suffered far more than she had, so her getting back at Genma took precedence, then she could have her own.

"Out." She answered slowly, one corner of her mouth quirking into a devious smile. "Got attacked last night." She walked over to sit down on the edge of the veranda, her wings still their medium size to purposely draw attention to being inhuman. "The guy actually thought I was a demon."

#Looks like you handled it# Genma signed without a concern.

"Now he just thinks I'm possessed." She said casually.

#Knock some sense into him then#

Ranma frowned, having envisioned her father blurting out something or reacting in some way. Giving up on her dig for information, she headed off to see if there was any food to snack on. The kitchen was empty but there was a basket with fruit on it, and she grabbed a pear before heading towards her room on the second floor.

"You spend a lot of time in that body." Akane was going in the opposite direction wearing a set of loose fitting pajamas.

Ranma was going to give an angry retort but she had been spending a lot of time in this form since coming here. Last night hadn't exactly been a choice to sleep in this form and today she had ended up doing so in order to use magic. "So?" She asked.

"So maybe you could give the real story about how you ended up like that."

"Pop told you that yesterday." She would have to show her displeasure at Genma's inability to come up with a story that doesn't fall apart with minimal thought.

"Uh huh." Akane rolled her eyes. "And I suppose in the past two weeks, traveling across country in two weeks what should have taken a month, you took the time to get used to being like that. It's not like hot water is hard to avoid on the road."

"So what if I did?" Ranma decided that Genma was going to be black and blue not just black and white tomorrow morning.

"Are you just some kind of pervert or did the curse mess with your head?"

"Neither." She took a bite of the pear and crossed her arms. "What's it to you?"

"Cause our parents want you to marry Kasumi."

"So it's a protective thing?" Ranma asked innocently batting her eyelashes. "That's so sweet."

"And I don't think someone who's been a girl for less than a week would do something like that." Akane grimaced at Ranma's overly cutesy display.

Ranma conceded that point. "You're not going to give up on this are you?"

Akane shook her head.

"You won't tell anybody?"

Akane gave a non-committal shrug. "No promises."

"Well then no story." Ranma slipped past the youngest Tendo to head for her room munching on the pear.

X x x x x x

Waiting till everyone should have been asleep, Ranma went outside and used his toes to hang upside down outside of Akane's window from the roof overhang. Rapping lightly on the panes of glass, it took a minute before Akane finally appeared, her eyes squinted in an attempt to see out into the darkness.

"Ranma?" She asked, opening her window slightly.

"Can I come in?"

"I do have a door." Akane snorted and opened the window fully so he could swing inside. "I do have to go to school in the morning."

"School?"

"You may have grown up in the wild but this is a civilized city." The long haired girl scoffed. "So why are you sneaking into my room in the middle of the night?"

"I didn't sneak." Ranma crossed his arms irritably. "If I was sneaking I wouldn't have woken you up."

"Whatever."

"Do you want to know or not?" He blurted out quickly, still having second thoughts about this. Akane seemed like she was reasonable enough to know the truth or maybe he just wanted to tell someone, and she had expressed interest.

"Fine I'm not interested in sleep anyways." Akane sat down on her bed.

Not wanting to be the only one standing, he sat down on the floor. "The reason I'm used to that body is that－ up until two weeks ago I was stuck in it."

"So you're really a girl?"

"No." He corrected her quickly. "Me and Pop made this－ guy angry a couple months ago. All we did was laugh at his ridiculous outfit!" Ranma's body tensed briefly before relaxing. "He said he was a God and he changed us. Jusenkyo was just the first thing we found that let us change back." He explained. "I got used to that body because I had to." He finished.

"A God? You were cursed by a God?"

"All we did was laugh I swear. He had this hideous purple outfit and this giant mustache out to here." He spread his arms out as wide as he could. "I was even the one who freed him from the prison that he was in."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Any more sense than my stupid old man saying I jumped into a spring at Jusenkyo willingly after seeing him cursed?"

"Point, but why the big secrecy?"

"Generally people don't react well when they find out you've been cursed by a God. Most people think you did something to deserve it." He answered. "So－ that's why it's a secret."

"You better not let this guy named Kuno find out about that."

"Tatewaki?"

"How do you know him?"

"Can we leave it at he thinks I'm possessed?" Ranma had opened up about the God, he didn't want to explain that whole episode with the crazed cleric.

"It's best not to talk about Kuno." Akane nodded like she had enough dealings with the cleric to last a lifetime. "Thanks for telling me I guess. But do you really think we would care that much about it?"

"You'd be surprised at what people get worked up over." He stood up and moved towards the window.

"You should tell Kasumi." Akane's suggestion stopped him.

"Yea." He answered slowly. Kasumi's situation now hit a little bit too close to home and he wasn't sure he could talk to her about that or who his mother was. At least not as easily as it turned out to be with Akane. "Night."

"Good night." Akane replied when he jumped out the window, closing it behind him.

X x x x x x

Six weeks ago

"Hey!"

"What?" Ranma turned around to look at the man running the bath house.

"Wrong side, can't you read?" He pointed at the sign that read male.

"Oops." Ranma chuckled absently before changing paths to the woman's side. It was actually easy to forget the change in gender when considering the change in species. With her father they had traveled a great distance, keeping to the woods, and generally avoiding any small towns. Now that they were in a bigger town, she had wanted to get a nice bath in before they moved around. Genma could smell like an animal but she couldn't.

She slowed when she noticed that the area of the bath and change area was occupied by thirteen women. Some were in the bath while others were in the process of removing or putting on their clothing. Ranma didn't miss that they noticed her right away. Suddenly the clack of her hooves on the wooden floor seemed very loud.

Turning her back to them, she tried to hide her blush. 'It's alright.' She told herself, her tail twitching nervously. 'You－ you're a girl right now, it's alright.' Disrobing, she grabbed a washcloth, and headed for the bath. Public bathhouses were nothing new to her, being on the woman's side was, and she didn't think it was at all normal for how much staring was being done in her direction.

Sinking into the water until only her horns showed that she was inhuman, Ranma found a spot as far from the other bathers as possible. Rubbing the small wash cloth over various spots of her body, she let the enchanted water do its job. The magic that did the cleaning was thorough but it didn't help remove dead skin and ended up feeling like a superficial clean. Removing her hair tie, she ducked underneath the water to get it clean. Done with her grooming, she leaned back against the edge, and she folded up the washcloth and draped it across her forehead.

'So much better than a river.' She sighed contentedly, enjoying a pleasant fragrance that was in the air. Ranma opened one of her eyes when she noticed that it was too quiet just in time to catch the last of the other bathers leave. "I must be just－ terrifying." She thought sarcastically.

X x x x x x

The present

"What's up with you boy?" Genma asked, avoiding several swift kicks from his son, who seemed very aggressive this morning.

"After what you've done, do I need a reason?"

'Great, does Jusenkyo not get rid of that monthly thing?' That week where Ranma had experienced the normal female biological function had been bad for Genma. Taking a punch to give a kick, he jumped back some distance and let Ranma run to him. Attempting to sweep out his son's feet, he nearly had his nose broke by a kick.

"You should respect your father." He caught Ranma with a kick to the side and followed it up immediately with a throw. Ranma twisted easily in midair to avoid any ill effects from the throw.

"Some father you are!"

Genma was surprised at the ferocity of Ranma's next attack and ended up rolling around on the ground briefly before scoring a knee to his son's stomach that drove the breath out of him. Rolling over so that he was on top, he pulled back his fist. "You lose boy." He smirked.

"Stupid bear." Ranma croaked out, eye burning with defiance.

"Stupid boy." Slapping Ranma on the side of his head, Genma got off of him. "Why are you so much more－ insolent today? That girl thing?"

"Girl thing?" Ranma looked confused for a moment before his face twisted into an angry scowl. Genma found himself on his back with Ranma standing over him shaking a fist. With a snort, his son left his line of sight.

Staring up at some clouds as they lazily floated by, he wondered what was really up with his son. Ranma being angry about something wasn't odd but he was usually open about the reason. Being secretive was a new thing, something that unfortunately had been happening more and more. Genma would have to come up with something to keep Ranma from falling back into a funk.

X x x x x x

Kasumi was just finishing buying one of the last ingredients for dinner tonight when she felt Ranma's magical presence return. If that wasn't enough, there was also a shriek of pain that accompanied it. Watching through a crowd as Ranma shook off water, a shop keeper was apologizing profusely. Moving so that she could see better, Kasumi saw that a pot of boiling water the shopkeeper had been using had been tipped over, spilling on Ranma.

'That must have hurt.' She thought to herself, feeling sympathy for the boy turned female tiefling. Kasumi briefly considered leaving Ranma to her own in the situation of being the center of a small spectacle. But it just wasn't in her to be cruel. Politely pushing her way through to Ranma, she grabbed the angry red head, and pulled her away.

"You really shouldn't get so worked up, I'm sure it was an accident." She hadn't seen the event but there was no reason to throw boiling water on someone. Kasumi was about to comment on how strange Ranma looked with her small wings tenting her tunic when the red head reached behind her back, and shifted the material until the wings pushed through slits in the fabric..

"Being boiled alive isn't something I'm used to." Ranma replied irritably, rubbing at some of her skin that was a bright shade of red.

"And you'll also cause problems for us." She said with a discrete whisper, not wanting any humans to hear what could be construed as plotting between two tieflings.

"Until you came by it was just me." Ranma pointed out, clueless of Kasumi's meaning.

"I know that is just a curse for you but for the rest of us we don't have an opportunity to be human." She explained. "Please don't give them a reason to believe stereotypes."

Kasumi hated talking like this but she had learned long ago that she was different from her family and the humans she lived among. Ranma looked at her very intently and Kasumi could see the cursed teen working out what she had left unsaid. Since they really didn't need to discuss such things out in public, Kasumi decided to move on.

"Were you out shopping for something?" She asked.

"Me? No－ just－ out and about." Ranma answered hesitantly. "Wasn't all that much to do sitting around your house." She said with more certainty.

"I could see how it would seem mundane for an adventurer." She commented dryly.

"Being an adventurer isn't all it's made out to be." The other tiefling said. "Mostly it's－ endless walking."

"But I'm sure you get to see many exotic places." She pointed out, having seen paintings and other images of far off lands.

"Sure I guess." Ranma admitted with a shrug. "I've never really thought about it before, it just was."

"It must be nice." She was under no illusions; Ranma could simply get up and leave. Her life was not so care free.

"Not always." The red head looked down. "It can be real dangerous out there. People die and worse. This place is pretty secluded so you don't have to worry about all the stuff that goes on."

"Excuse me a moment." She moved away from Ranma to pick up some carrots.

"Who's your friend Kasumi?" The shopkeeper, an elderly woman with her hair pulled into a tight bun named Naoko asked.

"Naoko this is Ranma. Ranma this is Naoko." She introduced.

"Hello." Ranma added in an unsure tone.

"It's nice to meet you." Naoko greeted, which Ranma basically ignored. "So what can I get you dear?"

"Just some carrots, please." Kasumi answered, picking up some of the items from their basket.

"I'll give you half price if you'll bring me some of the soup you're making." Naoko offered.

"That sounds fair." She answered; putting the carrots in a basket she was carrying her items in. "I'll have Akane bring you some tonight." She said as she left.

"I could carry that if you want." Ranma pointed to the basket.

"Thank you but I'm fine."

"Will you just let me do something?" The red head said irritably and Kasumi was taken aback by the sudden demand.

"Why would you need to do something?" She asked. "Are you still trying to apologize? You don't have to."

"Just let me do something." Ranma repeated, the red head looking quite distressed. "I have to do something to make up for being such a jerk."

"If you want." She gave into the gender cursed teen's demands and handed over her basket.

"Thank you." Ranma nodded, quickly becoming content with doing the simple task for her. Kasumi wasn't looking for any sympathy but she did find a small smile making its way on to her face.

X x x x x x

Back in male form, Ranma sat on the roof directly overhead of Kasumi as the tiefling worked in a garden that ran along the Eastern side of the home. Placed slightly away from the home was another garden that was growing food crops. Kasumi was humming a happy little tune as she worked to cultivate some flowers. Each note was just another thing that made him feel like a heel. He really was no better than the average person judging him in his girl form.

'It's a good thing she can't feel me like this.' One instance he knew the tiefling tracked him down just by presence alone, and he figured that in the market earlier she would have noticed as well if he hadn't cried out in pain from the boiling water. Idly trying to do the disguise trick his mother taught him, the result was of course nothing. Glancing down at Kasumi if she had noticed anything, the eldest Tendo sister continued to hum without a pause.

"There, isn't that better?" Kasumi cooed to a patch of yellow flowers before brushing her hands together, and standing up. The tiefling moved to check on some of the crops, pausing before she left, the golden haired girl turned, and look right up at him. "I'm going to have some tea, would you like some?"

Ranma was too shocked by the simple question to verbally answer so he just nodded his head. 'But I was completely silent.' With his skills at stealth he should have been able to stand directly behind her without Kasumi even suspecting.

"How'd you know I was there?" He slipped off the roof and followed Kasumi into the home.

"You do have a magical curse." Kasumi pointed out, removing her shoes and going into the kitchen.

"So you can tell where I am all the time?" He really didn't like that thought, standing off to the side in the kitchen. The only other occupants to the house were Soun and Genma since the other two Tendo sisters were attending class.

"No." Kasumi paused while washing her hands. "It's difficult to explain with words. Do you know the feeling when you notice something that's out of place? Like if you left a room and came back only to find an object moved without knowing how."

"Then you can track me."

"I said it was hard to explain." The tiefling seemed amused by his questioning. "I can only notice, not find." She reiterated.

"And how is that different from being able to find where I am?" He was wondering if there was some difference between what he thought of as tracking and what she did.

"I'm sorry but I really don't know a lot about magic. I just know how to do a few simple spells and what I've taught myself." Kasumi filled a kettle with water and then enchanted it with a heat spell. "Most of what I know came from my mother and she passed away when I was nine."

'I really don't like that people can just find me.' Ranma mentally grumbled. "Was your mom－ you know."

"A tiefling－ a demon?" Kasumi finished for him. "Would it matter to you if she was?"

"Well no I was just asking." He almost wanted Kasumi's mother to be a demon just so he could be sure that Nodoka didn't have to be evil. In the back of his mind he still suspected bad things to come from the succubus. 'Quit putting your foot in your mouth you idiot.' He berated himself.

"My mother was human." The tiefling dug into a cupboard to pull out two cups. "Father is the one who has demon ancestry."

"Ah." He nodded, watching Kasumi prepare the tea on a table in the middle of the kitchen. "Thanks." He said after she slid a cup over to him.

"It was fun spending the day with you." The golden eyed girl told him.

"Really?" All he had been doing was stalking her all day. Slightly unnerved by the inability to tell where Kasumi was looking, he didn't look long in her eyes. He was happy that his tiefling form didn't have those eyes since he looked inhuman enough.

"Although next time, maybe you could do it from on the same side of a wall." Kasumi said innocently and Ranma grimaced. "Oh dear, I should go get cleaned up so I can get started on dinner." The tiefling discretely finished her cup of tea. "Excuse me." She deposited her cup in the wash basin and headed out of the kitchen.

Once she was gone, Ranma sighed and cradled his drink in both hands. "Guilt trip much?"

X x x x x x

Three days later

"Boring!" Ranma shouted, swinging a scythe that cut easily through some long grass. He was all for physical training and spending time out in the fresh air, but this was just an annoyance. He hadn't noticed how overgrown most of the yard was when he first arrived, but now that he had cleared away all but a small patch to a relatively level height, it seemed to make the whole place look more dignified. Almost like there might be students again.

Which as far as he knew wasn't going to happen. Soun lost all his students shortly after his wife had died when someone had made a comment about Kasumi. Overreacting, he dismissed them all, and now lived off a stipend that he received from the city based on his social position. The whole stipend system was a layover from an older government that had kept a rigid social caste system. To not alienate the powerful families that remained when the system became an open one, the stipends remained in place for those that agreed to support the new government.

Ranma had missed this switch while off in another country. The whole thing had been a mostly bloodless affair three years ago. Commerce was what most of the nation cared about, as long as the money kept changing hands, it didn't matter who was in charge.

"Excuse me, Ranma?"

Ranma stopped slicing up the grass to see Kasumi holding a small box in front of her. "Hmm? What is it?"

"Akane forgot her lunch, would you mind bringing it to her?"

"Sure." He answered quickly, eager to take a break from grass trimming. Taking the box from Kasumi, he dropped off the scythe against the wall before jumping over it rather than use the gate.

The school was near the market district and had a large sign out from declaring it Furinkan. Ranma had seen it while flying the first night and hadn't paid much attention to it. A one story building built out of wood, it was a square shape with a small courtyard in the center. Walkways surrounded the building on the outside and inside, with large doorways that could open to allow the building to be cooler in the summer.

Hearing the clock at the center of town chime, he frowned at being late. When he finally reached the school, he had to search through the students all being excused to eat. Most were outside of the building and it took him nearly ten minutes, and searching from the roof in order to find the long haired girl.

"Hey." He greeted as he jumped from the roof to land next to her, surprising the other teen.

"Don't do that." Akane looked like she wanted to take a swing at him.

"Not even if I bring lunch?" He held up the box in front of her face.

"Yes." Akane snatched the lunch from his hands.

"I could take it back." He offered, reaching out to try and take it back.

"If you do I'll tell everyone about your little hot water problem." The dark haired girl smirked while he just frowned.

"So this is your school?" He decided it was best to ignore that little comment. Most of the students were young women wearing a specific type of blue dress. The few young men that were here had on a darker blue tunic and pants. Ranma's eye was caught by someone who was out of place, a familiar teen with a wooden sword, and wearing white clothing with gold trimming. "Oh no." He turned his back, hoping that Kuno hadn't seen him.

"He's coming for me you idiot." Akane roughly pushed past him and put the lunch box back in his hands. "Hold this."

Any nearby students backed away giving Akane and Tatewaki an open space to stop and stare at each other. Ranma was slightly impressed by the animosity that Akane seemed to have for the cleric, it was enough that he could almost feel her complete disgust at the other teen.

"Akane Tendo." Kuno paused, brushing some of his hair from his forehead. "Beautiful as always."

"Tatewaki Kuno." Akane said distastefully. "Annoying as always."

"Today is the day that I defeat you and remove the evil taint that is within your body." Kuno announced.

"Every time you say that you insult my sister." Akane crossed her arms irritably.

"I mean no disrespect to the Lady Kasumi." The cleric looked insulted. "While she is cursed with her birth to show her lineage, you look like one of us. Once I have cleansed this, then you and I can be wed!"

Kuno closed the distance to Akane and sliced downwards with his sword. Akane moved to the side and caught the taller teen in the side of the face with a left hook. "How is that not insulting?" The youngest Tendo asked.

Ranma absently opened Akane's lunch and began to pick at it, eating slowly as the two combatants fought. Kuno was definitely holding back. Ranma may not have been in the best condition when he fought Kuno but from the speed of his movements and lack of holy attacks, there could be no other conclusion. Akane was pretty good and eventually got a decisive blow in, but she seemed to be taking advantage of Kuno's hesitancy to hit her.

"You have fun?" He asked the fuming girl as she stood over the downed form of Kuno.

"Every day he tries this same stupid stunt. Beat me up and it'll somehow fix me." Akane said with a huff, taking a moment to fix her long hair.

"Here." He handed the lunchbox back to her. "Least he didn't use that Vulcanis Animus spell on you." He nudged Kuno with his foot.

"The what?" Akane asked cluelessly.

"Saotome?" Kuno asked suddenly while regaining his feet.

"Gah!" Ranma recoiled from the suddenly alert cleric.

"It is you." The cleric noted. "Have you freed yourself from your possession or have you come for my assistance."

"I told you I'm not possessed." He protested.

"That's just what someone possessed would say!" Kuno announced far too loudly. "Do not fret, for I am searching night and day to find a cure for your affliction."

"You can stop talking so loud." Ranma hit Kuno over the head.

"Ah I see, you wish to keep the red hair succubus from the public." Kuno ignored the hit to nod to himself. "But you must know that having the love and support of those around you can only help in destroying your demon."

'What is wrong with this guy?' Ranma grimaced.

"Hear me, students, Ranma Saotome is possessed of dark forces that he sought my aid in relieving! Naturally, seeing such a fine specimen of manhood in such dire straits, I gave it my all, though I sweated with the exertion and effort required to overcome Saotome, until finally I freed him of the red-haired succubus that plagues him so. Yet I fear this reprieve is only temporary, and I shall be forced to much greater efforts than I have been able to give poor Saotome, but I shall not cease until I have expunged this evil from his heart, replacing it with my holy dedication and love!"

Ranma stared with his own form of uncomprehending horror at the cleric. Very little of what Kuno had said made any kind of sense, but it sounded really bad.

"I must go now so that I might come up with a way to help my good friend Saotome with his problem." Kuno clapped him on the back before running off with his sword held over his head dramatically.

"Life sucks for you." Akane told him.

Ranma's whole body slumped in defeat. "I know."

"Hey!" Akane cried in outrage. "You ate my lunch!"

X x x x x x

Ten days later

"I said leave me alone!" Ranma yelled and hit Kuno with enough force that the cleric was thrown clear over a two story building. "Stupid Nabiki, why'd she have to tell that idiot I live with them?" Bending down to pick up the item Kuno had been shooting magical glitter at him with, he grimaced at the overly cutesy golden wand. "This stuff better come off." He growled at the glitter that was almost making his clothes glow from the intensity.

Pocketing the item to use on Kuno the next time he saw him, or maybe Nabiki as a way to get back at her, he headed off towards his mother's home while trying to shake off some of the glitter. The overweight woman who owned the shop below the apartment didn't pay him any mind, used to him coming, and going. She was actually really nice and occasionally even gave him some of the foreign treats that she was almost addicted to. The woman didn't know about his female form so he always arrived as a male.

This didn't last long because his mother would always find a reason for him to come into contact with hot water. Usually it was some kind of magic training, he was getting rather good at simple enchantment spells, but the rest of the time there wasn't any specific purpose for it.

Hearing some noises inside, he knew she was home or someone was trying to steal from the place, so he opened the door, and announced his presence. "Hey mom, I－." Ranma came to a full stop, frozen mid step, his jaw nearly resting on his chest, and his wide eyes locked on the spectacle taking place on Nodoka's bed.

"Oh, hello Ranma." Nodoka looked over her shoulder and greeted him like she wasn't doing what he was seeing. "I wasn't expecting you."

"I'llbegoingkaynowbye." He said in a flash, running out the apartment, and slamming the door behind him. 'I'll visit Mom tomorrow, yup that's what I'll do, I was never here.'

X x x x x x

Returning after a boring day of lounging around the Tendo's, Ranma knocked on the door this time, and only entered after Nodoka had replied. His mother was wearing a thin black silk robe and seemed to be preparing dinner for herself. Ranma quickly looked to the bed off the side and found that it was thankfully unoccupied. Brushing at some glitter that still clung to his skin, he might just have to burn the clothing he had worn yesterday because it did not want to come off.

"Was something wrong yesterday?" Nodoka asked, putting more ingredients in a pot, the primarily liquid contents happily bubbling. "You ran out so quickly, I was just about to ask if you wanted to join me."

"Mom! I'm a guy!" He protested and shivered in disgust at the idea. "And you're my mom." Ranma added with another disgusted shiver. "How could you even think that?"

Nodoka looked at him strangely. "I didn't ask for you to make a child with me." Grabbing a ladle she stirred the contents of the pot. "It's alright if you're embarrassed about not being as experienced as I am, how many partners have you had?"

Ranma floundered at the blunt question, stammering enough that no, he was not experienced in sex at all. Nodoka looked horrified at him.

"Oh my poor baby." The red head was around the table and hugging his head to her chest in an instant. "We'll have to fix this after dinner. It'll take longer than a night to bring you up to speed but you're a quick learner. Oh but you have two forms that you'll need to learn how to use."

"Mom!" Ranma shot away from his mother. "I'm not having sex with you!"

Still next to the table, Nodoka's eyes narrowed, and Ranma felt his entire body go cold. She quickly blinked her eyes and the feeling past. "If that's how you feel." Nodoka said with disappointment, despondently moving back to making her meal.

Ranma felt slightly sick to his stomach at Nodoka's idea and that he was actually sad he couldn't make her happy. 'I knew she wasn't human but－ ew.' Slowly sitting back down, he watched her work at the food. "So－ what are you making?"

"Just a stew, a little of this, a little of that." She answered, still sounding depressed.

"It smells good." Normal conversation was good.

"Thank you, would you mind setting the table?"

"Sure."

X x x x x x

Sipping on some tea and fighting down the strong urge to go check on Nabiki, Ranma waited as patiently as she possibly could for the middle Tendo sister to wake up. The only other person up was Kasumi, who was naturally an early riser, and was currently reading from some book she had borrowed from a local chiropractor. The other tiefling seemed to have a fascination with biology.

After leaving her mother's last night, she had walked back to the Tendo estate disguised as a human. Normally she would have just flown but the sky had been threatening to rain all day. It was also fun to be able to walk among normal people, she had even felt a distinct thrill at being able to fool the few people still out at the time.

When she had arrived, she had snuck into Nabiki's room, and used the glitter wand to get a little revenge on the middle sister. The task had been made far easier since Nabiki had been sleeping in the nude. Kasumi had been up getting something to drink and had nearly seen that she could look human.

'Nabiki does have a nice body.' Ranma thought absently. Her girl form was still better though.

"How's the tea?" Kasumi asked, drawing Ranma's attention.

"Very good." She answered, the spade of her tail flicking side to side in annoyance that Nabiki was still not up yet.

"So why have you been back so late recently?"

'Me? Oh I've just been seeing my mom who was turned into a succubus by my father so he could force her to have his child. She's also teaching me magic.' Ranma thought to herself. Kasumi would probably take that the best but Nodoka had made it clear not to tell anyone. "Just seeing a friend in town."

"They're welcome to visit here." Kasumi suggested.

"Maybe." She answered, feeling tired with trying to live almost a double life, but unwilling to screw up her mother's plans since they might only have one chance at it.

"Did they help you with the glitter? You seem less－ flashy today."

"No, actually I think it just doesn't like when I'm like this." Glancing down at her arms, she did have less glitter on them today, where the two days before she hadn't noticed any decrease. She assumed that whatever magic the wand was supposed to do must not react well with planetouched individuals. Ranma had of course kept that she had the item in question a secret.

Hearing angry sounding footsteps overhead, they stopped briefly before a door was slammed, and then continued on away from them. 'Guess she went to check my room.' Ranma struggled to keep her face neutral as the footsteps started up again on the ground floor and Nabiki rounded the corner.

"Oh dear." Kasumi commented.

"Oh my." She added as innocently as she could.

Nabiki had a look of absolute fury on her face. Wrapped up in a blue robe, the visible skin on her body nearly glowed with multi colored light. "You." She sneered with complete hatred.

"Me?" She glanced over at Kasumi. "Why are you blaming me?"

"Who else is covered in this－ stuff?" Storming up to her, Nabiki reached down to grab one of her feet, and pull it up so she could look at the bottom. "Ah ha! See! See! Whoever did it left foot prints and your feet are covered in it."

"Footprints?" Ranma asked.

"Yes." Nabiki growled.

"You do realize that I have hooves like this right?" She grew her wings out to medium size and flapped them once to emphasize the inhuman nature of this form.

"But." The middle sister pointed to the bottom of Ranma's foot. "Then why are you covered in glitter?"

"I've been covered in it for the past two days if you didn't notice." She pulled her foot free from Nabiki's grasp.

"I bet you changed into a girl just for this excuse." Nabiki seemed to have recovered from her mental hiccup.

"Ranma's been a tiefling the whole night." Kasumi came to Ranma's defense causing Nabiki to look between them like it was a big conspiracy.

Nabiki pointed a finger directly at Ranma's nose. "I know it was you, I'll find proof that it was－ don't think I'll forget this."

Ranma couldn't stop a snicker from escaping as Nabiki stormed off just as angry as when she came in. 'I'm going to have to remember the foot thing.' She decided.

"Ranma, did you do that?" Kasumi frowned at her.

Pulling out the glitter wand, she twirled it between her fingers before putting it back. "Maybe." She answered with a devious smirk.

"That's horrible." The other tiefling hid an amused smile behind a hand.

X x x x x x

Six days later

Nodoka smiled as she listened to Ranma talk about her day. Not particularly caring about the details, she only picked up on things that she filed away to use later. It had taken little prompting to get her child to change after arriving, and she as well had dropped her human disguise. Hugging the red head with one arm, she used it as an opportunity to get Ranma even further used to physical displays of affection.

"Divine beings are never fun to deal with." She told her pseudo-daughter, who had been relating a confrontation with the mental unstable cleric who thought Ranma was possessed. The other teen had tried out another magical cure to the non-existent possession.

"I just can't get it through his thick skull." Ranma sighed, not moving away from Nodoka's embrace.

'Yes this is a much better way to do this.' She had tried to move too fast before. Ranma had only lived among humans and her attempt at showing affection like a succubus had been too much for such a prudish upbringing. Nodoka tacked the blame for that on how her child had been human, thankfully she was so much more pliable as a tiefling.

Entwining her tail with Ranma's, she enjoyed the way the smaller red head stiffened at the contact before relaxing. 'Yes, much more pliable.' Ranma had little experience in physical contact in either form but sixteen years was long enough that he was used to the sensations of male flesh. But she had only a couple months spent with this form, one that was alien and different, one that Nodoka had now been manipulating so that Ranma no longer feared simple hugging and touching. Soon enough she would be able to become more intimate with her daughter. Once that threshold was passed then whole new worlds would open up.

Resisting the urge to move farther than that, she knew that it would ruin the mood, and Ranma would put back up her mental defenses. Her plan was now well on its way to completion. The most important thing in Genma's life was his son and she was taking that from him. While she had been happy to grant a son to the man who had freed her from Happosai, but after what he had done, she needed to take back that favor. That a God had brought out the latent infernal nature of her offspring as a punishment of all things was the perfect opportunity.

Her job was made easier by Ranma's own personality. His vanity and ego allowed Nodoka to bring out a pride in her form. Once that was in place the rest were rapidly joining it. Even before her manipulations, Nodoka had been pleasantly surprised to find out that her child, without any prompting, had used her body to manipulate men to get free food. To do so with the natural distrust of tieflings and other half breeds was not an easy feat and she wondered if Ranma possessed a weak or underdeveloped charm ability.

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"I asked if you knew anyway I could get that idiot off my back?"

"I'm sorry." Looking away thoughtfully, she didn't think it prudent to suggest Ranma just seduce the boy. Although that would only change why the boy was after her child. "I don't think anything can be done." Nodoka liked that this cleric was bothering her daughter since it had the effect of pushing the tiefling towards her. Ranma could handle the boy physically but mentally it was causing a strain she was unprepared to deal with. "Hunters of our kind are rarely rational." Tieflings were rarely hunted like true infernals but there were places that they would be.

"But I'm not－ ya know."

"When Genma changed me I tried to deny it as well." She lied, not needing to charm her child who believed her false history without question. "If Jusenkyo had not worked to make you male." Nodoka hid her disgust at the idea and started to charm Ranma, her voice sounding so sincere she simply could not be lying. "It would have been no different with you. Eventually you would have given up trying to find a way back to the way you were, and at that point you may have wasted the best years of your life rather than enjoying them."

"I wouldn't have stopped." Ranma replied, her voice hollow.

"Why fight against what a God has done?" She put as much reverence as she could into the word god. Nodoka felt like she was so close, a little more, just a tiny perspective shift and she could truly start to mold her child. "I would never abandon you like Genma would if you didn't fit into his plans."

Nodoka could see the indecision in her child's blue eyes. Shifting herself, she cupped Ranma's cheek in her hand and alternated between staring into either eye. "I'll always love you." That was it, the dam broke, and Nodoka was in. The open offer of unconditional love was the final piece to taking her child from Genma.

X x x x x x

Four days later

"Could you grow your hair out?"

'Why not?' Ranma thought as her mother brushed her hair. Doing the necessary spell to lengthen her hair, the back quickly grew out to cascade down her back and cover up her wings while leaving her bangs the same length.

"That's enough." Nodoka informed her when her hair reached the bed and the succubus resumed brushing.

Ranma was sitting on Nodoka's bed, her mother straddling her from behind as she worked. Getting used to the rhythmic pulling on the back of her head, she had been spending more and more time around Nodoka. In the past few days she had basically lived at her mother's apartment. Last night she had even slept here and had woken up cuddled with the other red head. She had been rather uncomfortable at where Nodoka's hand had been but her mother had been sleeping so it couldn't have been intentional.

Ranma was growing even more anxious to do whatever it was that Nodoka had planned but her mother simply told her to be patient. Nodoka seemed completely unconcerned about doing anything about it, spending more time fussing over Ranma's appearance.

"All done." Nodoka announced, bring her back to the real world.

"What did you do?" Ranma reached behind to find that her hair had been pulled back into a braid starting at the base of her neck that trailed all the way down her back. Where it started, Nodoka had pulled it tight but after that it became a loose braid. Some hair had been left on the sides above where her horns met her skull that now draped down in front of her body like two tails.

"Well shorter would be better." Ranma commented, picking at one of the free flowing strands that reached her arm pits.

"If you don't like it why not just make it shorter?" The succubus asked, grabbing the braid to start undoing it.

"I didn't say I didn't like it." Ranma answered quickly before she could start removing the braid. Nodoka smiled and tightened up the tie at the end. Moving away from Nodoka, Ranma spun around to face her mother. "So Mom, when are we going to do－ whatever it is you're planning?"

"Don't worry." The red head smiled enigmatically. "It'll be very soon."

Ranma pouted, wanting to do something now. Plotting out schemes was something she had done before but they were always short term, keeping up the act was wearing her thin. Genma already suspected she was up to something with how she would vanish for long periods of time to spend time with Nodoka. Especially these past few days.

"How do you like your dress?"

"It's alright I guess." Ranma picked at some of the dark green material.

Nodoka had surprised her with it earlier and had convinced her to put it on. It wasn't as tight as what the succubus wore, but compared to her normal clothing it felt constrictive. Underneath she wore another thinner material slip that did interesting things to her breasts, which the dress showed off with a neckline that showed off her new cleavage. It was form hugging down to her hip before becoming loose and reaching down to her knees. Someone had modified it so that it could be worn without worrying about her inhuman features. In a strange way it made her feel more exposed and uncomfortable than if she was naked, even though it was rather modest except for the neckline.

'Why am I wearing this?' Ranma furrowed her brow in thought. She had refused when Nodoka first showed it to her because she preferred slacks and a tunic but then her resolve had melted as soon as Nodoka has asked.

"We should go out." Nodoka stopped her from thinking. "We always spend time cooped up in this room."

"Sure." Ranma answered without thinking, tired of having to hide, and sneak around just to see her own mother.

X x x x x x

"I'm worried about the boy, Tendo." Genma wasn't staggering, but he was comfortably drunk.

"He seems to be getting along well with Kasumi." Soun was in a similar state.

"True." The two were getting along very well, far better than Genma was interacting with his only child. He hadn't even done anything since arriving at the Tendo's that should have caused such a distance to grow between him and Ranma. Genma knew that something was going on, cold indifference was not Ranma. His son was far too open and honest to be so secretive.

Pausing as they passed a small group of young women, Genma couldn't help but look. It had been such a long time since he had been with a woman. Now that he had more free time with Ranma being away so much, he did find life a little lonelier than he remembered.

"I wonder where he goes." He said to himself. Ever since being changed by that God, Ranma would often go flying or do something on his own. Now Ranma left nearly every day, staying out long into the night, and had yet to return. This wasn't an abnormal thing in and of itself but with everything else going on he couldn't ignore it.

"You don't think he's cheating on my little girl do you?"

"The boy? No." Ranma maybe the flirty type but he was somewhat accepting of the engagement so he wouldn't go back on it.

A woman in a black dress with flowing red hair down to her lower back rounded the corner in front of them with a younger red head with her equally long red hair tied back in a braid wearing a green dress. 'I always did like red hair.' He thought drunkenly before noticing that the younger wasn't human. His eyes were drawn downwards to her hips as they swayed back and forth with each step on her tiny hooved feet, a long tail with a spade tip moved in sync with the hips, a tiny flick occurring at the end of each motion. Not into such a young girl, he was checking out the older one when certain things suddenly connected in his brain.

"Ranma?" He narrowed his eyes. The hair was way too long but there were familiar tiny bat wings on the girl's back and a set of equally familiar horns on the sides of her head. "Ranma?" He asked louder and more forcefully though she still didn't hear him. Slapping his face several times to try and force himself sober, he ran past his son and jumped into their path. "What are you doing dressed like that boy?" He demanded.

"Pop?" The tiefling froze up in surprise.

"Hello Genma." The older and taller red head purred.

Genma chose to ignore her to focus on his currently female son, he was just opening his mouth when his alcohol hindered brain caught up to who the older red head was. "No－ Nodoka." He gulped, avoiding looking in her eyes, but not missing the cruel smile on her beautiful face. Genma focused squarely on how bad this whole situation was and quickly picked up Ranma to hold in his arms before running away.

"What's the big idea?" Ranma cried out angrily.

"Shut up boy we have to get away from her." Not believing that Nodoka would let him get away so easily, he moved to the rooftops.

"Lemme go!" Ranma tried to struggle from his grip, but his son was far weaker in tiefling form when compared to her real body, and her position left little option for attack.

The dark form with large bat wings that swooped in to land before him made him skid to a stop on the gravel roof. Nodoka's wings instantly shrunk down and vanished into her back. The momentary distraction allowed Ranma to elbow him in a soft spot, he gasped in pain and released her. Ranma bounced away, her wings expanding out to their medium size as she stopped next to the red haired woman.

Genma glared at his offspring but focused on the bigger issue. "Boy, what are you doing with her?"

"With my mom you mean?" Ranma asked sarcastically before looking at her mother with a happy smile. "So I guess the plan's ruined right?"

"Not at all dear." Nodoka answered, running the back of her left index finger down Ranma's cheek.

"What do you want?" Genma demanded, his earlier question on where Ranma had been spending his time was now answered.

"After what you did to her, how can you ask that question?" Ranma growled at him menacingly.

"What I did to her?" Genma furrowed his brow in thought. He had known Nodoka was angry with him over something for some time now but he had no clue why.

"Don't try to weasel your way out of it Genma." Nodoka declared, stopping Ranma from saying something.

"Was it that I freed you from the dreaded master?" He asked, imagining that a succubus might like such a being, even if she had been obviously repulsed to be around him.

"No it was because you turned her into a succubus so you could make her have me." Ranma answered too quickly for Nodoka, the succubus' eyes going wide.

"Quiet Ranma." Nodoka warned.

"Do you really think I could turn someone into something else?" He scoffed. After what they had been through was his son really that stupid to think he could do that?

"How else would she be a succubus?" Ranma didn't catch her mother's warning.

"She's always been one." He answered with a shrug. Ranma blinked her eyes several times, clearly confused over something.

"But you said." Ranma turned to Nodoka and was immediately caught by the succubae's gaze.

"He's lying." Nodoka stepped forward and grabbed Ranma by the shoulders. "Let's fly away from here, away from Genma, and his lies."

"You don't look in a succubus' eyes boy!" Genma picked up a small stone and hit Nodoka in the shoulder with it. She cried out in pain and the spell she was casting was broken. "She's using her charm on you."

"Charm?" Ranma backed away from Nodoka, a dark scowl forming on the tieflings face. "You－ you used magic on me. This whole time?"

"I know you're a demon Nodoka but how could you do this to your own son?" Genma was starting to figure out what had been going on. Nodoka had convinced Ranma of him doing something bad and from Ranma's mode of dress, she had also been doing other things.

"Your son." Nodoka spat at him. "Why would I care about some male?" She sneered, her look softening as she turned back to Ranma, trying to catch his eyes. "I care about my daughter though, my beautiful daughter." The succubus watched helplessly as Ranma ignored her to fly over to him.

"How did you meet her?" Ranma asked, landing a meter from him.

"The－ master had summoned her and kept her as a slave. After defeating him, I freed her, and she said she'd give me a child as a reward." He explained a very simple version of the story.

"If that's true, why is she after you? Why did she track you down for my entire life?" The tiefling looked between him and Nodoka, clearly struggling with indecision.

"I've only seen her twice since I left with you and she's never told me. I thought it was just second thoughts about giving you to me." He answered and crossed his arms. Physically he wasn't worried about Nodoka, succubae didn't fight physically. "But I remember her saying good bye and being all happy when I left."

"That was before I noticed you broke my mother's vase!" The red haired woman shouted at him from across the roof. "Just like all the other things that would vanish after you destroyed them you clumsy oaf!"

"That vase?" He struggled to remember. During the time when he was setting up a temporary home with her before she became pregnant with Ranma, she had brought over a lot of simple items from her home plane. "You mean that ugly thing that was covered with the pictures of sex?"

"Yes!"

"I sold that." He pointed out.

"You what?"

"I sold it to pay for dinner one night. You remember that hog we had to celebrate Ranma's first birthday?"

"So you didn't break it?"

"Nope, I sold it." He nodded, happy that the mystery was solved. "Sorry, I didn't know it was important I thought it was just something you kept petunias in."

"Sorry? After fifteen years all you have to say is sorry for losing a priceless family heirloom?" Nodoka asked hysterically.

"I could do the crouch of the wild tiger if you wanted?" He suggested.

"Apology accepted." Nodoka bounced across the roof to hug him, pulling away after the initial lunge, she trailed a finger over his chest. "So are you still an animal in bed?"

'Wait, is that it?' Genma wasn't sensing any ill intent from the succubus. "That's all you were angry about?"

"Yes." She chirped happily. "Oh it feels so good to have closure."

"All's well that ends well." He shrugged before remembering that Ranma was next to him.

"All this for a flower pot?" The tiefling asked, her head bowed, and fists clenched. With a flap of her wings, she shot up several meters in the air before a second flap sent her flying off over the city.

X x x x x x

Ranma landed with a slight hop and folded her wings against her back. Craning her neck upwards, she looked into the sky, the stars hidden slightly by the lights of the city, and breathed in deep breaths. Steeling herself, she focused on the task at hand, eliminating everything else from her mind.

"Oh－ it's you." A haughty feminine voice said from the large home she had landed at. Standing on a walkway that ran the length of the building underneath an overhang was Kuno's sister, Kodachi. Her dark black hair was pulled in a ponytail at the left side of her head with a black rose inserted at base. Her skin had a white pallor and her eyes had a hard hint to them. She was wearing a local style dress called a kimono, that was white with black roses embroidered in the fabric. "The one my brother has become so obsessed with."

"Is he here?" Ranma asked. She had never met Kodachi before, only heard about her in Tatewaki's insane ramblings. The cleric's sister was apparently someone who worshipped herself as a Goddess.

"I believe he is communing with his－ Goddess." The girl looked Ranma up and down. "Hmm－ follow me." Ranma was just about to hop up on to the raised walkway when the girl held up a hand. "Wipe off your hooves or walk on the grass."

Sitting down on the walkway, she used the bottom of her dress to wipe the small amount of dirt off her inhuman feet. Kodachi lead her around the home to a small training complex in the back. The complex was made up of stone platform like at the Tendo's in front of a square building with large doors opening the front to the platform that were currently closed.

"He's in there." Kodachi informed her distastefully.

"Thanks." Following a path, she entered into the building through a smaller door off to the side. Kuno was sitting in a crosslegged position in the center of the wooden floor, his eyes closed, hands resting on his knees, and wearing only a set of white pants.

The cleric's eyes open at the sound clack of her hooves on the floor. "Saotome?" He asked, rising to his feet. "Has your possession finally overcome your person? Or do you wish to take an active part in curing your affliction?"

"I－." Ranma opened her mouth to say that she wasn't possessed out of reflex. "I might have been possessed, but not like you thought." The taller teen waited for her to say more. "Do you know how to banish a demon?"

X x x x x x

Author Notes:

**Magic **- While most magic draws on ambient energy or from the various pantheons, and deities. Magic users themselves often have their own reserve to draw from. It's rare for someone without a connection to divine or infernal planes to be strong in this personal energy to the point where it's usually unnoticeable.

Enchantment is the most used category of magic. An example is a heat enchantment which is commonly used to heat liquid for use around the home but can be applied to any substance. Magic users have even developed ways to permanently enchant objects to be sold, allowing anybody to use it with an activation word.

**Planes** - There are three primary planes of existence. Divine, Infernal, and Mortal. A being from either of the first two is not a guarantee to be immortal but there are those that are, and there are many sub-planes catering to various types of beings. Mortal is the plane that Earth exists on and the various species that live there. Most entities prefer their own plane of existence and some die if they remain off of their home plane too long.

**Succubae** - Threat level very low. A primarily female species created by higher level demons by manipulating the bodies of humans, they generally appear to be very beautiful women of average or above average height. Their bodies remain young once reaching maturity until very late in their lives. Normally their skin is paler than human norms but not enough to draw undue attention. With large bat like wings and a tail ending in a spade, they have natural shape shifting abilities to hide these features, and they can even go above a disguise to be fully human indefinitely. They are limited in their shape changing and can only go from their natural form to a human one based on that.

Because male succubae are a rare birth defect, they need to breed with other species, primarily humans who they resemble the most. But with their abilities to change their bodies they also have the ability to completely control how their children turn out, or if they'll even become pregnant. So succubae are able to give birth to full succubae, tieflings, or humans, but even a human one will still carry the lingering taint of their mother's lineage possibly leading to tiefling offspring for the next generation.

Even with this control, creation of male succubae happens by accident and not intent. Being primarily female predators being male carries significant social stigma, and are usually incapable of producing children through a quirk of their biology.

Being weak fighters, they avoid outright confrontation to rely on their ability to charm others. This charm ability is not full mind control and requires them to have a sharp mind in order to lead the target towards a desired outcome and gain trust. Simply ordering a charmed individual to do something will almost instantly break the spell. Their other ability is to drain energy through physical contact. Death is rarely the direct result, however if drained enough it can take weeks for an individual to be able to move again. This draining is not required for them to live, but it is required for any of their magic abilities.

Like most non-mortal beings they prefer to live on their own plane of existence that caters to their biology. However due to their reproduction requirements they'll often spend significant time on the mortal plane. Summoning of succubae is possible because they are demons and summoners who do so will often bind the succubus to them stopping the demon from returning to their plane, and forcing the succubus to do their bidding.

Even though they look very similar to humans, they are still demons, and empathy for others is minimal, even to their own children if they are not full succubae. Not that they are incapable of mortal sentiment, but they normally view mortals as little more than smart animals or fuel for their abilities. Once a succubus has become attached to another they are possessive and will often try to warp the individual to their whims in order to improve them. This had lead many of those who become the focus of a succubae's attention to become little more than slaves. Their possessive attitude can lead them to be intensely selfish about anything they own.

They have a society, though it has few rules for its citizens to abide by, leading to a chaotic if stable life for the members. Being demons that thrive off sex, sex itself has no taboo or stigma attached to it. Physical contact is a status symbol, the dominant partner being a succubus of higher status. They have their own Goddess, who acts as a literal monarch, ensuring that order is kept even with the limited rule set.

x X x

**A Motherly Omake**

"Pop that looks like a demon summoning circle." Ranma frowned at his father, the elder Saotome drawing a complex design on the training platform in the Tendo's yard. Glancing to the side he wondered why he Genma had grabbed some hot water from the bath.

"You wanted to meet your mother." Genma answered, finishing the circle which immediately began to glow red.

"I'm pretty sure I would know if my mom was something you had to summon with one of those." If some monstrosity was summoned he was going to let Genma deal with it. He wouldn't even stick around long enough to see how the fight went.

In a burst of black flame a meter off the ground, a stunningly beautiful woman appeared reclining in the air while idly grooming her nails with a file. Her pale skin was offset by the large black bat wings that sprouted from her back, the bright red spade tail that was waving absently beneath her, and the familiar shade of red hair that cascaded around her in waves. The only clothing she wore was a barely there black dress that was made from a fabric so transparent that it clearly wasn't worn for modesty.

"Hmm?" The succubus turned towards them with a bored look, her eyes going to Genma. "Oh hello Genma, it's been a long time hasn't it?"

"Sixteen years, Nodoka."

"Is that all?" She put a finger to her lips and then shrugged. "So why did you call me?"

"Our son wanted to meet you." Genma grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him towards the woman. Ranma didn't really want to accept what was happening but it seemed to be true.

"It's too bad he turned out human." Nodoka sighed. "Was that it?" She went back to filing her nails.

"Is this your idea of a joke old man?" Ranma snarled at his father.

"You wanted to meet your mother." Genma defended himself. "Now you know why you never did before."

"Can I go yet? I really don't care about our son and this plane is way too cold." Nodoka shivered in a way that gave off a whole different type of vibe.

"Let the demon go Pop, then you can tell me where my real mom is." Ranma caught a face full of hot water, activating the Jusenkyo curse. Nearly tearing out the back of her tunic with her wings, she quickly fumbled with her pants to get her tail out of the pant leg. "A little warning next time!"

"How bout now?" Genma asked Nodoka.

"Ooh." The succubus purred, dropping down to stand on the ground. "When did this happen?" She asked, clearly happy over the God's punishment.

"Pop's stupidity." Ranma answered, noticing suddenly how she had the same shade of red hair and how unlike Kasumi she had a spade tail. There were some other physical similarities that she couldn't put her finger on but they clicked in her mind. "Oh no."

"Maybe I was a bit hasty with letting him have you." Nodoka looked her up and down in a very predatory way.

"You want to borrow him for a month or two?" Genma suggested. "He's been real annoying and moody lately."

"Hey!" She really wanted to protest that last part. "Now wait a second." Ranma was just getting started with berating her father for all of this when a pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders from behind.

"Deal." Nodoka's voice was right next to her ear, the succubus taking a moment to bite at her earlobe.

"I'll get you for this Pop!" She cried out as she was surrounded by black fire.

Two months later

"Ranma's back." Kasumi noted as everyone was sitting down for dinner. "What perfect timing."

The heavy clacking of Ranma's female form hooves on the wood slowly came down the hallway and the red head appeared in the door way, leaning heavily on the wood frame. Ranma's wings were at their smallest size, her hair was unbound and frazzled. Her clothing consisted of a shiny black leather corset that started just below her waist and came up only enough to push her breasts up and together. The other piece of clothing was a fabric loin cloth that had to be held on with magic for how little fabric there was.

"Have fun with your mother boy?" Genma asked. Ranma didn't answer, falling forward lifelessly to hit the floor with a heavy thump. "That bad huh?"

"No more sex mommy." Ranma moaned in an overly cutesy voice. "I'm too sore from the last time."

"Where did you send him?" Akane asked, horrified at Ranma's comment.

"He wanted to spend time with his mom." Genma answered with a shrug.

x X x

**Cliched Staff Omake**** a Miniseries**  
By Bree R.

Ranma continued to idly scratch at the glowing glitter that still clung to his clothing despite his best efforts as he continued the walk up to his mother's apartment. Finally he reached his mother's door and idly knocked before hearing a muffled breathy cry of, "One second!" from his mother. To his surprise a few minutes later a middle aged man opened the door a goofy smile on his face. He slowly shuffled forward obviously quite tired. Finally he noticed Ranma standing there and smiled at him.

"Have fun. She's in rare form today lad." He said dreamily before slowly shuffling his way over to the stairs. Ranma only stared at him uncomprehending before shrugging and making his way inside.

"Hey Mom?" Ranma called out after entering the apartment and closing the door behind him.

"Oh Ranma dear! I just filled the bath. Would you like to join me?" Nodoka's slightly distant and muffled voice responded. Scratching at the glowing glitter still attached to his clothing and skin in places he simply shrugged. He used to bathe in streams with his old man all the time and he'd be in his tiefling form the whole time after he entered the bath anyway plus he'd get this damn glitter off of himself.

"Yeah Mom I guess." Ranma replied walking towards the room containing the large copper washing basin that doubled as both a bath and washing basin for clothing. Entering the room he grabbed a wooden bucket with some water remaining from having been used to fill the tub. With it still warm he splashed it over himself to take his tiefling form. Stripping out of his lightly glowing clothing he entered the water with his mother carefully averting his eyes from her naked flesh.

"Hello child." Nodoka stated making eye contact with her reluctant daughter before beginning to close the distance between the two of them wrapping her arms around her daughter. "My what is this?" Nodoka inquired idly wiping at the glitter still stubbornly clinging to her daughter's skin.

"Ah some idiot cleric was firing some weird staff at me saying he would use it to exorcize me or somethin' is all." Ranma replied lazily relaxing in his mother's calming embrace.

"A magical staff?" Nodoka asked. "May I see it? I do have a passing knowledge of those things after all."

"Ah sure." Ranma replied, and left the bath to pull the staff out of her clothing she had discarded on the floor. Once she grabbed it however the staff suddenly started to glow and a bright pink light covered Ranma's body.

Nodoka stared in shock as her daughter was obscured in the bright pink light but less than a second later the light stopped and a now dressed Ranma stood in front of her. Ranma's was still a tiefling but she had cute purple ribbon bows attached near the tips of her horns. A short dark purple leather skirt covered her nether regions. Around her torso was an opaque light purple bustier covered with hearts and accents in a copper color.

Ranma blinked and looked down at herself and screamed. "What...what's going on Mom?" Ranma replied before looking up and seeing her mother cringing in a corner.

"Please Ms. Demon hunter don't hurt me I haven't been too bad! No need to purify me! I just eat what I need to survive." Nodoka said obviously panicked rocking back and forth staring in fear at what had been her daughter.

"Mom! It's still me I ain't gonna hurt you." Ranma replied taking a step towards her mother.

"You mean it?" Nodoka asked fearfully.

"Of course." Ranma replied.

"No feeling the need to purify me with glowing hearts?"

"Er...No."

"No needing to interrupt one of my meals because your boyfriend couldn't keep it in his pants around the beautiful and more experienced redhead?"

"Ummm..."

"No trying to shove me back in the abyss because I decided it'd be fun to find some latex outfits to train some..."

"Mom no! Calm down!" Ranma replied.

"Oh thank Malcanthet! You have no idea how often bimbos dressed like that try to kill our kind." Nodoka replied testily. She took a few tentative steps towards her now very cutely dressed, and thankfully not a threat to her continued existence on this plane, daughter. "Oh that outfit certainly flatters your figure dear."

"Ah...I guess so." Ranma replied blushing before averting her head and catching sight of her hooves that were now the same shade of purple as the bustier. "Hey! Why did my hooves..."

"Oh how cute! That must have taken quite a bit of nail polish, what a thorough magical wand." Nodoka replied smiling. Ranma's only response was to faint. "Was it something I said?" Nodoka asked herself with her finger to her lips.

X x x x x x

"He's just trying to trick you Ranma!" Nodoka exclaimed before stepping forward and grabbing Ranma by the shoulders. "He doesn't want to own up to what he's done."

"You don't look in a succubus' eyes boy!" Genma picked up a small stone and hit Nodoka with it. She cried out in pain and crumpled to the ground. "She's been using ma..." Genma was suddenly cut off by Ranma's loud growling.

"How DARE you hurt her after all you've done to her old man!" Ranma roared. Running forward she attempted to tag Genma with her fist. Due to her overly emotional state however Genma easily saw through the badly telegraphed move and easily countered knocking her to the ground hard. Stars exploded in Ranma's vision and she desperately struggled to get back up.

"Enough Ranma she's been using magic on yo..." Genma began only to be cut off this time by Nodoka calling out, "Use the staff daughter!" Ranma heard her mother and after struggling to her hooves she nodded at her mother before a glowing gold staff appeared in her hands.

Ranma twirled the staff around in her hands a concentrating expression crossing her face while Genma looked on flabbergasted before she shouted, "Bellulus Daemn Proeliator Malum!". Genma realized half-way through the obvious spell being cast that he had to stop the tiefling but was unsuccessful in reaching her in time and a bright flash of pink light suddenly exploded from the tiefling knocking Genma away in a heap from the magical feedback temporarily blinding him.

Genma's eyes slowly clearing he saw Ranma standing in front of him sneering now dressed in a bright purple bustier with a bright purple skirt and obnoxious bows. Blinking to try to remove the obvious hallucination he opened his eyes again to see a obnoxiously colored purple hoof about to connect with his head. Desperately he rolled out of the way and Ranma only succeeded in landing a glancing blow. "Weak boy! Look what she's making you wear!"

Ranma's response was a growling and her tail began to twitch irritatingly. "Psh...cute little purple bows. Come on stop this nonsense boy." Ranma grew contemplative after that exchange looking at the ribbons and bows all over her outfit before smirking.

"Thanks for the idea pop!" she said sweetly before muttering "Daemn Impedio!". At her cast her ribbons and bows suddenly expanded covering Genma's body and wrestling him to the ground. "Serve's you right old man!" Ranma proclaimed. Genma squirmed idly but simply couldn't break the magically enchanted ribbons grip.

Laughing Nodoka walked over to the collapsed Genma. "Now I'll take my revenge on you slowly over many long hours as you serve me intimately Genma." Nodoka said blissfully. "If you would be so kind as to let me borrow a whip daughter." Ranma idly nodded transforming one of her excess bows into a fine purple leather whip which she handed to Nodoka who proceeded to hog tie Genma with it. "I'll be sure to teach him a lesson child. Please come to my apartment in a few hours." Nodoka proclaimed before grabbing Genma and flying into the air towards her apartment.

Ranma smiled stretching her arms above her head a satisfied expression crossing her face. Being a Beautiful Demoness Warrior in the Defense of Love and Seduction was a hard but oh so rewarding job. Cocking her head to the side she idly wondered why that phrase sounded so very familiar yet at the same time so wrong.


	3. Genma's Pleasant History

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

Spoken spell

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

X x x x x x

"I－." Ranma opened her mouth to say that she wasn't possessed out of reflex. "I might have been possessed, but not like you thought." The taller teen waited for her to say more. "Do you know how to banish a demon?"

"Banish a demon?" He asked. "It is a complicated matter to banish any being."

"Yes or no?" She asked. Banishing wasn't just sending a being to another plane, it was a permanent ban, they could never return.

"I've never done it myself." The cleric scratched at his chin. "I would need time to prepare."

"How long?" Ranma asked impatiently.

"Three hours." Kuno answered. "So－ if I did this, would you allow me to excise your own demon?"

Ranma was in Tatewaki's face before the boy could react and forcibly drag him down to look directly into her face by his neck. "Talk about me being possessed right now, and I'll kill you." She growled and he rapidly nodded. Releasing his throat, she took several steps away from him.

"It seems some infernal plot has occurred this night." Kuno retrieved a tunic from a shelf on a wall and put it on. "I shall create the necessary item tomorrow in the morning and meet you at the Tendo's around midday."

Ranma's eyes fell, seeing Genma and Nodoka together as if nothing had ever occurred. Genma would be at the Tendo's. Or he wouldn't be. Ranma couldn't decide which outcome would be worse. "Would it be alright if I stayed here?"

"The room you were in before is yours if you wish it."

"Thank you." She figured that she could remember where it was and headed towards the door.

"Good night Saotome." Kuno's voice followed her out the door.

Shooting up into the air, she circled around to where she remembered the room. The window was closed but unlocked so she slipped inside. Without thinking she pointed a finger in the air out in front of her to create a small light that hung in the air in order to illuminate the dark room. Ranma paused to stare at the soft white light before with a snort she stripped out of her dress. Leaving the slip on rather than be naked, she dismissed the light, and slid into the bed.

With nothing else to draw her attention, Ranma's mind went back to Nodoka. She couldn't tell how often Nodoka had used her charm ability but she knew that her mother had. It was possible that the entire time had been spent under her spell. Lies, manipulation, and betrayal were all she had found in finding her mother. Curling up in a small ball, tears streaming from her eyes, she wished that the world would just vanish.

X x x x x x

Kasumi blinked her golden eyes at the strange woman that was joining them for breakfast. She was slightly pale, contrasting with her beautiful red hair, blue eyes, and a figure that she was showing off with a sheer nightdress. In a way the red head looked a lot like Ranma, certainly far more than Genma did.

"Excuse me Uncle Saotome, who is your friend?" She asked, having noticed that the woman was sitting closest to her future father in law.

"I'm Nodoka." The woman spoke up, her eyes roaming over Kasumi in a way that she was very uncomfortable with. "You must be Kasumi."

"It's nice to meet you." She greeted, trying to be polite, while wondering why her father looked so nervous around the woman.

"By the way, she's a succubus." Genma said between mouthfuls.

Kasumi, along with her two younger sisters, froze up at the casual mention that there was a demon sitting at the table with them. Akane was the only one to act, getting to her feet, and moving towards the demon aggressively.

"Ranma is my child." The red head smiled sweetly, her statement making Akane forget what she was doing.

"I bet this has a story to it." Nabiki commented.

X x x x x x

17 years ago

Genma parted the bushes in front of him as silently as he could. The Master was asleep, having drunk too much of some exotic ale. He didn't care to think too much about the perverted gnome that he was forced to train under. He did however care for the vision of perfection that was cleaning herself next to the waterfall below.

'Nodoka' He thought dreamily watching her run her hands through her wet hair to remove tangles. Sure she was a succubus, a demon, but he couldn't just ignore how she was being treated by Happosai. The evil and perverted gnome had summoned her and then bound her to his will. As long as he renewed his spell every week, she had to remain in the mortal plane as his servant.

The succubus was in human form and had her back to him and he traced his eyes along her body. He wondered how anyone could resist being intoxicated by her. Soun didn't know that he was infatuated with their Masters demon pet. His training partner was currently spending time with his wife and newborn daughter. Genma wanted to go and meet her but Soun always found some reason for him to stay away.

He gulped as Nodoka rose from her seat on a rock to wade out into the stream. Sucking on his bottom lip, he leaned further out from his vantage point to try and get a better look. 'Why does she always have to be turned so I can't see everything?' Leaning over the edge on all fours, his hand slipped on a moist rock, and he plunged the several meters to land in the water below.

Sputtering and coughing on water, he stood up in the freezing water, and found Nodoka staring at him with a look of amusement. "Uh heh heh, hi." He greeted lamely, having never talked to the demon before, and having to speak loudly over the roar of the waterfall. Being careful not to look her in the eye, he also had to force himself not to look at other more interesting places on her nude form.

"Hello." The woman waded through the water towards him slowly, a sultry smile on her face. "You do not need to fear my gaze." She informed him.

"I'm not afraid." He boasted, still avoiding her eyes. "I just know that you don't look a succubus in the eyes."

"Why is that?" She asked, now only several meters from him, the waterfall roaring in his ears started to seem very distant.

"Because you charm men." He answered, moving to the side, and away from the rushing water.

"What reason would I have to charm someone who already only has eyes for me?" She asked, moving closer to him.

"I don't know what you mean." He said out loud while internally he wanted to tell her that it was true, he couldn't focus on anything else.

"I've seen how you cannot keep your eyes off of me." She raised her hands to rest them palm down on her shoulders, her fingers resting lightly on her skin. "Is it because of what I am－ or do you truly desire me?"

Genma gulped, fearing that she would simply laugh at his deviant attraction if he should admit it. "I can't think of anything else." He heard escape from his mouth. "Whenever Soun talks about his family, I just want to run away with you and start my own."

"How very human of you." She laughed softly, genuinely happy about his comment, and not the mocking one he had expected. "You know that I'm not, right?"

"I'm not stupid." He answered her, holding his ground as she came within reach of him, and was so very happy that he was waist deep in freezing cold water. "Would you? If he wasn't around, would you be with me?" He asked hopefully.

"You want a child?" Nodoka looked at him curiously.

"I always wanted a son." So far this was a scene from a dream, why not go for broke?

"A daughter would be so much better but－ if you can give me my freedom, I'll give you a son, and maybe try having a human family."

"Really?" He asked hopefully.

"Yes." She nodded, reaching a hand up to brush part of his tunic to the side. "This water is so cold, how about we seal this deal in a warmer, and far more－ pleasurable fashion?"

X x x x x x

Genma tried unsuccessfully to hide his disgust as Happosai drunkenly buried his head in Nodoka's breasts, groping and fondling with his tiny hands the scantily clothed female. The succubus for her part looked bored with the whole thing, uninterested in giving the gnome any response. Neither he nor Soun had touched the drugged alcohol they had given the ancient gnome, their plan so far going off without a hitch. Except that all he wanted to do was to attack the little monster fondling the woman that he loved.

"This tases funny." Happosai slurred, pulling away from Nodoka to look down at his mug.

"Nonsense Master." Soun poured more of the drugged drink for the gnome. With a shrug of his small shoulders, the gnome drank the entire mug in one gulp. Waiting impatiently, Happosai was finally overcome by the drugs, and toppled off of his succubae pillow to the ground.

"Quick the explosives!" He quickly tied up the small body of Happosai in thick ropes, Soun was right there with him attaching a string of explosives. "Do you have the wards?"

"Of course." Soun held up several paper wards.

Running off up the mountain they were camping at the base of, they dumped the comatose body with the fuse lit on the explosives in a cave, and then quickly pushed a giant bolder to block the entrance. Before they could even apply the wards, a series of explosions shook the hillside sending rocks and other debris falling from above. Waiting for it to pass, they quickly slapped the paper wards on the boulder in front of the cave, sealing even the spirit of Happosai inside for all time.

"Tendo." He turned towards his training partner and longtime friend.

"Saotome." The mustached man turned towards him.

"We're free!" They shouted happily and started to dance around each other.

"We shouldn't make light of the dead though." Genma warned after they had spent a considerable amount of time being complete idiots.

"Too true Saotome, let us leave this place and never return."

Returning to their camp, Nodoka had already left, gone to the meeting place they had decided on. Packing up their things, he said good bye to Soun, but not before promising that one day they would come together again and have their children be wed. Rushing off into the woods, he couldn't stop laughing because he was just so happy to be free of Happosai.

"Nodoka?" He called out, looking around the small clearing that she was supposed to meet him at. "It's done, he's gone." No one answered him and there was no one else present. "Nodoka?" Genma's elation became depression. Had something happened to her? What could have kept her from being here?

His shoulders slumped and he stared at the trees around him. "Of course she wouldn't come." Letting out a shuddering breath, he sat down in the dirt against a tree. 'I'm such an idiot, what was I thinking trusting a demon?'

"No need to be so impatient." Nodoka's lilting voice teased him, stepping out from behind a tree across from him. "I'm right here."

X x x x x x

Genma felt dead to world while Nodoka lay next to him with one of his arms was trapped underneath her. A thin bed sheet covered their nude forms. Gathering as much energy as he could, he shifted position with her so that he was spooning her from behind. Rubbing the smooth and distended skin of her heavily pregnant stomach, he kissed at her neck.

"Is Ranma feeling better?" He asked.

"Your son's stopped kicking me." She answered.

They hadn't had sex for several months now, pregnancy seemed to be about the only thing capable of stopping a succubae's libido. But Nodoka was still a succubus and at least once a week she would need to drain energy from him to keep her strength up and she claimed it also helped Ranma from bruising her internally. Usually this meant naked cuddling while he was slowly drained.

'My son's already a fighter.' He thought proudly, making a point to ignore how Nodoka always referred to Ranma as Genma's child, never as her own. Genma knew that she did not like that they were going to have a son but he hoped that actually being a mother would change her attitude. Maybe once she recovered from her pregnancy and Ranma was older, he would help her have another child.

'It's too bad that I'll be leaving with Ranma for training. I could get used to this kind of life.' Brushing some of Nodoka's red hair that had fallen into his face to the side, he didn't know if she would always care for him, but he would always come back to her.

X x x x x x

Nodoka shifted Ranma in her arms, the one year old drinking greedily from her right breast. She had grown used to the idea that the child she had birthed was male but she would never really care for him. It was unlikely that she would even mention him to her family. Patting down some of his black hair that was sticking out at an odd angle, she knew it would still be some time before Genma took Ranma, and left to train him. So she would simply have to deal with it or leave.

"You would have made such a cute little succubus." She cooed to the child in a cutesy voice when he finally stopped eating with a little burp. "Oh yes you would have." Ranma giggled at her voice, uncomprehending of what she was saying.

Rising from her rocking chair, she put Ranma in a small place they had enclosed so he couldn't crawl away. Kneeling next to the enclosure, Ranma stared up at her wings as they hovered over her back in awe. There was certainly some infernal in the baby. He could cause trouble the moment she took her eyes off of him and was always climbing things. That would be less of a problem if he had wings but his crying was infuriating whenever he fell down.

"Genma better get back soon because I'm tired of watching his son." She said with the overly cutesy voice that made the baby smile. "Maybe if he keeps leaving me in charge of keeping you alive I'll take you away with me and make you into want I want." Transforming a human into a demon was no simple task, certainly harder than a gender change, and she would like to be able to love her first child.

"Here." She handed him a stuffed cat. "Play with this and stay out of trouble." Watching for a moment as he chewed on the ear, she shook her head, wondering what had possessed her to have a son. 'Oh right, that horrible little fiend wannabe gnome.'

X x x x x x

Present day

Kasumi retired to the kitchen after breakfast and hearing about how Ranma's parents had come together. Something about the tale was slightly off, such as why Ranma had reacted so poorly to the two being reunited. Although for Ranma, someone who had thought himself a normal human his whole life, it might have been a shock to find out that his mother was a demon. She could remember well when she stopped being ignorant of how others saw her and how painful that had been.

"Would you like some help with the dishes?"

Kasumi nearly jumped out of her skin at Nodoka's question, the succubus having snuck up on her. "Thank you." She finally answered while trying to hide her nervousness and moving to give the woman room at the wash basin. Scrubbing at a stubborn spot, she tried to ignore the demon's proximity. It wasn't that she feared Nodoka physically but she wasn't comfortable around an infernal being, even if technically she was part infernal herself.

"Ranma spoke very highly of you." Nodoka said conversationally.

"Really?" She asked happily before reigning in her emotion. "I mean, he did?"

"I think you helped ease her distress at becoming a tiefling."

Kasumi raised an eyebrow, confused over the phrasing. "Ranma just has a magical curse, but I guess I have helped dispel some of his prejudices."

"She didn't tell you, did she?" Nodoka's smile was big enough that her perfect white teeth were shown. "Such a sneaky child."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about." Kasumi was unnerved by the succubae's grin.

"Ranma didn't become a tiefling because she fell in some muddy water." The red head leaned in closer to her. "But maybe you should ask her." Nodoka backed away to her original position.

"I will." She didn't trust Nodoka to tell the truth, not without some kind of confirmation.

"I'm sure it'll be an interesting conversation." The succubus rinsed off a plate and set it to the side.

"Hopefully Ranma comes home soon." She paused in her washing. "Do you know why he stayed out?" Kasumi asked innocently.

"Probably just upset with Genma." Nodoka answered. "I know how short sighted and stupid he can be. But isn't that like a male, to just act without thinking?" The succubus' changed to a very friendly tone with her last sentence.

"Sometimes." She answered, uncomfortable with being so cordial with the newcomer, but admitting that her father could be rather silly. "Lady Saotome." Kasumi started but was interrupted by Nodoka.

"No need to be so formal, you're a friend of my daughter after all. Ooh I know! You could call me Auntie."

"I really shouldn't." Kasumi was actually worried about how Nodoka was referring to Ranma as a girl. Not being well versed in succubus society, she had no way to know if she might do something insulting. Finished with the dishes, she dried her hands on a small towel before handing it to the other woman.

"I insist and my surname isn't Saotome, I am from the house Ageha."

"Oh－ I thought that you and Genma were together."

"As much as a succubus and a human can be－ together." Nodoka seemed amused at the idea and Kasumi became uncomfortable again with how the red head was looking at her. "I'm open to new experiences. Say, how much control do you have over your tail?" She asked thoughtfully. (1)

Kasumi's face flushed brightly and she turned her body so Nodoka couldn't see her tail. "I hardly think that's appropriate!"

"A simple no would have sufficed." Nodoka shrugged.

X x x x x x

Ranma's stomach made a growling noise that she pointedly ignored. She wanted to change back into a guy but she was needed to help with preparing the spell. Kuno for all his ability with casting holy magic was incapable of the simplest neutral magic. Ranma did however change into some loaned clothes from the cleric. Since they were so much larger and she didn't feel like modifying them, she disguised herself as human. The cleric was only momentarily surprised by this before going about the task.

Sitting with her back against the wall, she watched as Kuno prepared the magical item to banish demons. He had a large pot setup at the center of his training hall. Ranma had helped by using magic to make the water boil and she had to repeatedly change the temperature based on some whim.

"Is it a potion?" She asked, cocking her head to one side. Having removed the braid, her hair was now back to its original length, and pulled back in a simple ponytail.

"No, the instructions I received state that the components need to be dissolved in a liquid, then with the proper incantation they will become a magical item." Kuno answered, crushing something with a mortar and pestle.

"I'm surprised you don't just have to speak a bunch of words." Ranma slid down to lay on her back with her hands laced behind her head and bringing her knees up to cross her legs. Looking past her chest to her right foot sticking out into the air, a little smile appeared on her face, and she wiggled her toes. Her momentary happy memory of when Nodoka taught her how to do this spell was crushed under the weight of why she had taught her..

"It's a layered spell." Kuno scooped some paste from the mortar and dropped it into the cauldron. "They are impossible to counter without countering every part of it at once."

Ranma nodded absently, her comment more idle conversation to break the silence rather than trying to find out more about the magic behind it. "How much longer?" She asked impatiently.

"Three more spells." Kuno answered.

X x x x x x

Ranma was going in and out of napping while Kuno worked, and when he finally announced that he was done, she rubbed at her eyes blearily, warring with herself over whether or not to get up or sleep more. The harsh scent that hit her nose compelled her fully into wakefulness. "What is that?" She asked, covering her nose.

"It is quite pleasant to me." Kuno answered. In front of him the cauldron had thin wisps of gray smoke moving and circling around above it. "It must be the infernal nature of that body."

"Whatever." Ranma approached the cauldron and watched as the liquid inside along with the extra contents glowed a bright white before shrinking down to a small fist sized stylized red crystalline heart sitting at the bottom. "That's it?" She asked as tiny white wings peaked out from the heart and fluttered cutely, the heart quickly rising up to hover at head height.

"I followed the directions exactly."

"It looks like another one of your stupid possession things." Ranma reached out to poke at it with a finger but was stopped by Kuno grabbing her wrist.

"The first being it touches with infernal heritage will be banished to their home plane." (2)

"Right." Ranma quickly pulled her hand away and took a nervous step back.

Tatewaki took a small fabric pouch and captured the heart within. "So where is this demon who has wronged you?" He asked, attaching the pouch to his belt.

"The Tendo's probably." Ranma grabbed the front of her tunic and bunched it up so that the back was tight to her skin. "You don't mind if I rip the back on this do you?"

"Well I would prefer that you didn't."

"Thanks." Dropping her disguise and expanding her wings out to full size, they tore through the back of the tunic. "That worked surprisingly well." She commented before spreading them outwards to their full reach. Punching a hole with a finger in the seat of the pants, she pulled her tail through.

"Let's go." Ranma grabbed the much larger Kuno around the waist.

"Now wait just a moment." The other teen started to protest but was cut off as Ranma flew out the open side of the building, and up into the air. "Gah you're heavy." This was the first time she had ever had a passenger and it was taking a considerable amount of energy to fly.

"Too high!" Tatewaki latched on to her.

"Watch the hands!" She shrieked because one of his hands was pawing at one of her breasts.

She couldn't arrive at the Tendo's soon enough; before she had even landed she was beating on Kuno's head with both hands. "Let go you jackass!"

"I've never tried to do anything but good, oh Mico, please let me survive!" Kuno had his eyes shut tight and he was literally crushing her with the force of his grip.

"Can't breathe." She wheezed, being slowly dragged to the ground.

"Hmm?" Kuno finally opened his eyes enough to notice that he was back on the ground. "I'm alive?"

"Lemme go." She gasped.

"Oh." Releasing her, the cleric stepped back a respectable distance. "Are you alright Saotome?"

"No." Ranma answered, doubled over with her hands on her knees, and trying to catch her breath.

"I apologize for my actions but I－."

Ranma stopped Kuno from talking by jumping at him and knocking him to the ground before grabbing him by the throat and shaking him. "What were you thinking?" She yelled at him. "What kind of idiot tries to crush the person who was keeping them from falling out of the sky?"

"Daughter, strapping young men shouldn't be treated like that." Nodoka's voice cut into her anger. "They have other more pleasurable uses."

Ranma quickly twisted her head to lock on to her mother, meeting the woman's eyes with a glare of hatred. "Get up." She commanded to Kuno as she let him go. The cleric took a moment to recover from her attack but quickly rose to his feet. "She's the one."

"Her?" Kuno looked thoughtfully at Nodoka then at Ranma as the rest of the household came out to see what the commotion was. "I see." Opening up the pouch containing the magical creation, it shot out, and hovered in front of the cleric.

"What's going on boy?" Genma asked.

"I'm getting rid of her." She answered, not letting her eyes waver from the other red head. Nodoka's eyes widened momentarily.

"Daughter don't be so rash, how about we talk this out over some nice tea?"

"Don't call me that." Ranma growled. "Don't you call me anything." She had tolerated Nodoka's fascination with this form for far too long. Now that she was no longer under the succubae's spell, she wouldn't anymore.

"Say Nodoka, what was it that you were doing with our son?" Genma asked the succubus.

"Other than the lie about how you met me, nothing that should make her this angry." The woman answered.

"Like I'm going to believe that." Ranma rolled her eyes. No way could someone who claimed to be a caring mother have lied about something like that so it all had to be a lie. Every compliment, promise, and quiet moment had all been a manipulation. "Hurry up and do it Kuno."

"Oh, right." The cleric nodded and pointed a finger towards Nodoka. "**Eternal Kaleidoscope Love Crystal of Banishment, this servant of the eternal Goddess Mico commands that you banish this demon from this plane**."

"Banishment?" Nodoka hid herself partially behind Genma. "But I like this plane."

"I would say that I was sorry milady but your demonic presence sickens me." Kuno held up his right hand in front of his chest with his index and middle fingers pointed upwards. "Anyone with infernal heritage will be banished by this magic, please do not interfere." With a flourish of his hand, Kuno pointed towards Nodoka, and the magical heart moved with shocking speed towards the succubus.

Nodoka was faster, shedding her human disguise to shoot up into the air to avoid the heart that passed through where she had been with a high pitched buzzing from the tiny wings. Kuno pointed his arm straight up in the air and the heart followed the physical command. Seeing that Nodoka was trying to flee, Ranma followed her up into the air to intercept, having noticed that Kuno had to control the spell creature, and if Nodoka got too far away he wouldn't be able to hit her with it.

The succubus came to a stop and hovered in the air when Ranma got in front of her. "Ranma please, I only lied about what I am."

"You tried to turn me against my father!" Ranma shouted, noticing the incoming projectile heart. "Woah!" She dove out of the way along with Nodoka. "Watch it with that thing!" She yelled at the cleric as she chased after her mother.

"He's a human with some uses, nothing more, and certainly not like us." Nodoka folded in her left wing and spiraled downwards to avoid the heart again.

"I'm not one of you!" Ranma followed, realizing that while Nodoka wasn't someone who trained her body, unlike Ranma this was her natural state, and she had the edge in experience.

"I suppose a human can fly like this, right?" The succubus looked back for an instant, finding the banishment spell about to touch her. Flaring her wings, Nodoka braked suddenly, and tumbled backwards, the heart passing harmlessly underneath her. Ranma tried to avoid her mother, but impacted with the succubus face first at high speed. Dazed, she fell back first towards the ground. Crashing through the branches of a tree, she impacted the ground amid a shower of leaves.

"Ow." Rolling on to her side, she found Nodoka had not had such a soft landing, and was laying crumpled with a wing draped over her body in the small clearing they had fallen into. Ranma tried to remember the path they had taken and figured that they were just outside of town. Staggering to her feet, she shrunk her wings down to medium size, and moved towards the succubus.

"Saotome!" Kuno called out, running through the trees to the side, his banishment spell hovering next to him. "Good job, you would make an excellent demon hunter."

"Yea." Ranma said without conviction, watching her mother's labored breathing. Her resolve started to crack, even if Nodoka was a demon, did she deserve this? It felt like there was a lead weight in her chest as pleasant memories spent with her started to surface. This whole thing with Kuno was supposed to be a quick affair, just a quick spell, not hunting Nodoka.

Nodoka stirred, flopping on to her back to stare up at the sky before noticing the cleric advancing on her. Crawling backwards, the red heads feet kept tangling in her dress, and she was still too dazed from the fall to do anything else. "Ranma." She looked over to her for assistance, Nodoka's blue eyes pleading with her to help.

"Stop." Ranma stepped between Kuno and Nodoka. "I can't do this. Not－ not like this."

The cleric's face remained impassive, the heart buzzing in front of him, waiting for a command. "I thought as much."

"What?" Ranma blinked several times.

"That your possession had corrupted you further, I saw it earlier with your casual shape changing. So I prepared the spell for two charges." Kuno explained. "I am truly sorry that I wasn't capable of saving you from this fate."

"Now Kuno." Ranma gulped, catching movement out of the corner of her eye. The flying heart was caught in Genma's outstretched hand. "Pop?"

"I think that's enough." The elder Saotome informed the cleric, crushing the crystalline heart in his fist, the spell creature dying with burst of rainbow colored light.

"You dare interfere?" Kuno's tirade was cut off abruptly by Genma planting a kick in the teen's gut that was followed up by a knee to his chin, knocking the cleric out.

"Wow, thanks Pop." Ranma was surprised at her father's actions.

Genma's beady eyes met her own. "I don't know what she did boy but I expected better of you."

"You're defending her?" She snarled.

"Of course not, she likely did something evil and cruel to you, and you have every reason not to like her for it. But this－." Genma shook his head.

"So you wanted me to do nothing? To just let her get away with it?" Ranma's shoulders shook with anger before she snorted. "You deal with her then, I'm going to go get changed back."

X x x x x x

Long after the participants had left the small clearing, the remaining fragments of the banishment spell littering the ground remained. Magic once gathered could not simply be destroyed and as a collection of divine magic, could not merely be absorbed into the ambient magic without causing an effect. The various pieces of red crystal started to dissolve with audible snaps and crackles. Small sparks of light shot up into the air to hang without dissipating.

When all the fragments were gone, the light particles started to coalesce, joining together in small clumps at first, then larger ones, until finally it was a ball five centimeters in diameter. Hovering as a sphere for a time, it started to contract in some areas, and expand in others. Legs, hands, wings, head, and body formed. The hand sized fairy was made of soft red light that changed color and intensity to look like physical features and a form hugging shoulder less minidress. Looking around and uncomprehending of the world around her, the four wings on her back fluttered, the longer oblong leaf shaped ones dwarfing the smaller round ones.

The spell creation flittered around, her limited intelligence slowly setting in. Having no real gender but having a female form she decided to be female. Sitting down on a branch, she remembered something about demons, and chasing after two of them. What was she supposed to do about demons though? There was a purpose that she was created for but without someone to direct her she didn't know what. Where was the one who created her? No that was wrong, two had been involved in her creation.

Rising up off the branch, she started to make her way through the forest towards where she remembered the demons to be. She was nearly halfway there when she noticed that she was very tired. Pausing to find out why, she found that her magical body was expelling too much magic, and soon she would bleed out and cease to exist.

Not horrified at the prospect but not wishing to end her existence so soon, she was able to solve this problem by drawing from an outside source that matched her body. As soon as the connection was made, a strange feeling washed over her. It felt as though a set of powerful eyes had turned their gaze on to her. The moment passed and the feeling vanished. Not knowing what the feeling could have meant or if she should be concerned, she resumed her journey, no longer in danger of falling apart.

X x x x x x

Having sharpened and cleaned his short sword, Ranma held it up and looked down the edge. There were several enchantments on the blade, keeping the edge, protection from rust, and another to keep it from breaking. He had purchased it four years ago after a job Genma had picked up led them to deal with a few things that they simply didn't want to touch. After buying it, his father had insisted that he learn to use it properly, even though he had already known to use all but the most exotic of weapons years before.

Even though the enchantments meant cleaning and sharpening was a useless activity, he still liked to do it, the simple acts helping to relax and focus his mind. He had been so focused that it was growing dark so he must have missed dinner. Absently trying to create a light with magic, he frowned at the action, deciding that magic was addicting, making simple tasks far too easy. Before he could get up to light a candle, red light appeared in the room behind him.

Thinking that someone had walked into the room behind him, he spun around in his sitting position to come face to face with a tiny floating girl made of red light. Little wings fluttered behind her and she was looking at him curiously.

"You feel like the demon who helped make me." The fairy said in a high pitched voice. "Am I supposed to banish you?"

"Banish?" Ranma blinked several times. "Uh oh."

X x x x x x

Running a wash cloth along her left arm, Kasumi closed her eyes, and enjoyed her time to relax. There was all the excitement earlier with the Kuno boy and Ranma, then Ranma had returned alone before immediately changing back into his real body, and shutting himself up in his room. Genma with Nodoka returned a short time later, the succubae's clothing was ripped, and she was in a weakened state. Kasumi didn't usually think of Genma as an observant man, but he put the woman in Soun's room rather than start a fight with Ranma over the use of their own.

It was a good thing that Akane and Nabiki had been in class when that had occurred. Akane would have interfered physically and Nabiki would not have resisted antagonizing Ranma once he returned. Keeping the peace in her home had become a difficult task. Her serene moment was interrupted by Ranma running around the side of the house with a small red fairy chasing after him. Kasumi covered her chest with her hands and watched the gender cursed teen try to avoid hitting the water but slipped on the wet wood of the walkway.

"Leave me alone!" He cried just before hitting the hot liquid and activating the Jusenkyo curse.

"But I think I'm supposed to banish you!" The fairy protested, skimming over the surface of the bath, following Ranma as she was only lightly hindered by the water.

"Well don't!" Ranma jumped out of the water, her pants not making the journey with her, leaving her wearing only a tunic that reached her knees. Continuing to run, Ranma freed her wings, and took off flying at high speed.

"Wait!" The fairy shot off at an equal speed.

"Oh my." Kasumi commented.

X x x x x x

Watching the tiefling fly through the dark sky from the streets below, the tall hooded figure smiled because he had found what he was looking for.

X x x x x x

"I can't take it anymore!" Ranma dropped to the ground, having spent what must have been hours being chased by the demented little fairy construct.

"So you'll let me banish you now?" The tiny red creature asked hopefully, appearing no worse for wear.

"Let me ask one thing. If you touch something I am holding it doesn't count right?" Ranma's eyes strayed to the side, having chosen this spot for reason. This was a construction area, with a large steel headed mallet within reach.

"Uh－ maybe." The tiny girl answered.

"Good." She grabbed the mallet and hefted it. "You mind if I test it out?"

"Test what out?" The fairy asked a moment before Ranma brought the largemallet down on her. From underneath it there was a flash of light but no blood.

Pulling the mallet away, Ranma found that the fairy was gone. "That's all it took?" Ranma smiled with slight delirium over not being banished tonight.

"That kind of hurt but it was also kind of fun." A tiny feminine voice said from Ranma's left. Ranma's eyes then head slowly looked to the left to find the fairy girl sitting on her shoulder. "My turn to play!" The fairy raised her hands above her head and a little red mallet formed out of light. "Demon be gone!" She shouted cutely and smacked Ranma in the side of the head.

She waited for something to happen, afraid to bring up that nothing had lest it happen at that moment just to spite her. "Was that it?" Ranma hazard to ask, it hadn't even hurt.

"I think so." The fairy looked at her mallet and hit Ranma again.

"So you're just another of Kuno's failures I bet." Ranma smiled cruelly and snatched the fairy from off her shoulder to hold in her hand.

"Um－ could you please let me go?" The tiny girl asked.

"Oh I'll let you go, right after I pay you back for chasing me around, and acting like you can actually do something." She giggled evilly.

X x x x x x

"So what's this?" Nabiki asked, eying the glowing red fairy girl contained in a cylindrical dome top bird cage that was just big enough for her to fit in. Ranma was sitting at the table with the fairy girl placed on it within reach. Kasumi was in the kitchen preparing breakfast, Akane was out for a morning jog, and Genma was lying about in that strange bear body.

"She's from Kuno." Ranma answered.

"Please free me." The fairy begged, pressed against the side of the cage farthest from Ranma. "He keeps doing evil infernal things to me."

"Oh? What kind of things?" She asked, sitting down to be closer to the fairies level.

"Hey! No talking or I get the scissors again." Ranma pointed an accusing finger at the fairy who nodded her head rapidly.

"I have to say Ranma, you being all cruel and domineering is－ interesting." She bit at her lower lip, wishing that he didn't have that curse to deal with. Poking at the caged fairy, she wondered what devious things the part time tiefling could come up with. The boy didn't respond, his eyes locking on to Nodoka when she sauntered into the room wearing little more than a thin robe. Nabiki couldn't be sure but it almost felt like the temperature dropped a few degrees.

'Very interesting.' Ranma looked downright furious at his demon mother and after hearing about what had happened yesterday, there seemed to be something of an anger issue between them.

"Are you in a better mood today?" Nodoka asked Ranma who proceeded to ignore her to poke at the light fairy. The succubus furrowed her brow.

"What am I going to do about you?" The boy asked.

"You could let me go." The fairy suggested hopefully.

"Ranma, I asked you a question." Nodoka tried to speak with her son again.

"And I ignored it." Ranma answered without even looking at the woman. Nodoka looked like she had been slapped at the retort. "You want it Nabiki?"

"Huh?" She had been watching the interplay between mother and son without really thinking.

"Whatever this is, do you want her?" Ranma held out the fairy cage to her.

"I'm sure I could find a use for her." Nabiki answered, taking the cage, and grimacing at how deliriously happy the fairy looked.

"Oh thank you for saving me from that brutish infernal." The girl hugged at the cage bars closest to Nabiki.

"Uh huh, yea. You're mine now, and that means you'll have to make yourself useful." Putting the cage back on the table she put a finger to her lips. "I've never really had a spell slave before. What can you do?"

"I can－ I was made to－ I can fly around really fast." The fairy finally decided on something she could do and nodded happily.

"If I let you out, you're not going to fly off are you?"

"If you let me out I'll love you forever!" The fairy announced.

"You can serve me forever." Releasing the latch holding the door closed, the fairy flew out at high speed to circle her several times before hovering in front of her face. "So do you have a name?"

"What's a name?" The fairy asked.

"She's already annoying, you can have her back." She told Ranma and immediately found the fairy hugging her neck.

"Oh please don't let the infernal have me again." The tiny girl pleaded.

"Alright alright." Grabbing the girl's tiny dress between her thumb and index finger, she hauled the fairy away from her. "I'll come up with a name but make yourself scarce until I need you to do something."

"Okay." The girl chirped and fluttered off to sit in the corner as far from Ranma as possible.

X x x x x x

"Alright Nabiki, explain what's up with the fairy." Akane finally cornered her sister at school during a break. Normally she didn't seek out her often times malicious sister, but the small fairy made of red light was just too suspicious.

"A gift from Ranma." Nabiki answered.

"Ranma is a name right?" The fairy asked rhetorically.

"Doesn't seem very smart." She noted, earning her a cute pout from the fairy.

"Ranma thought it was something from Kuno, she spent most of the night trying to banish him but can't really do anything. When Kuno saw her in class today, he didn't seem to know what was up with her. So I'm not too sure if it was him."

"So why did he give it to you?" Akane knew that Ranma and Nabiki tolerated each other most of the time and there had been a great deal of animosity over the morning where Nabiki woke up covered in a magical glitter that took three days to fully come off. Nabiki couldn't prove that Ranma was the culprit but he was the most likely suspect and had found the situation hilarious.

"No clue." Nabiki answered with a shrug. "She's been pretty useful since she figured out how to turn down her brightness."

"For what?"

"Sending messages while the teacher isn't looking. I even have her setup to go between classes."

"Of course." She rolled her eyes. "So does she have a name or should she just be called－ the fairy."

"I don't know, pick something." Nabiki replied flippantly.

"You'd make a great mother." She remarked and started to think on the subject. The fairy was made out of different shades and intensities of red light. Something about red was too obvious though. "How about Pepa?"

"Pepa?"

"Like pepper but not."

"What's a pepper?" The fairy asked.

"Eh, it works." Nabiki nodded. "So it's decided, your name is Pepa."

"Okay." Pepa mimicked Nabiki's nod. "But what's a pepper?"

X x x x x x

Altering Kasumi's heat enchantment on the bath, Ranma relaxed further into the hot liquid. Having spent all day training once she had gotten rid of the tiny red pest, she let the heat soak into her aching muscles. Alone and without anything other than the soft trickling of the spring that drained water into the bath, she was nearly asleep when the sound of someone entering the water alerted her.

"This water may be slightly too warm." Nodoka commented as she slowly dropped into a sitting position. The nude succubus was in her real body with her large bat wings folded against her back.

"Then leave." Ranma said irritably while making no move to leave. She was taking a bath and Nodoka was not going to ruin her relaxation.

"You've been avoiding me all day." The succubus didn't leave but didn't move any closer.

"I don't want to see you, what's hard to understand?" She asked snidely.

"I'll tell you how I really met Genma."

"I'm not interested in your lies." Moving across the bath, she went as far from Nodoka as possible.

"It wasn't all a lie." The other red head followed her but kept a respectable distance. "I needed you to be on my side."

"Because you thought he broke some pot." She sneered. "You lied and manipulated me over something you kept flowers in." Ranma closed her eyes, desperately wanting to get away from Nodoka, but was rooted in her spot by indecision. She wanted to believe that Nodoka had a good reason for all of this, that the whole thing was just one big misunderstanding.

"It wasn't just some flower pot but－ yes, that was what started it." Nodoka admitted, bowing her head. "Genma saved me from servitude, not put me into it, and I tried to live with him as a human woman. It was hard for me because I was never a human to begin with."

"So? Why did you let him leave with me then?" Ranma's curiosity got the better of her when she should have ignored Nodoka or just left.

"Because you were a male."

Ranma's hands clenched into fists, her entire body tensing as Nodoka's declaration of unconditional love appeared in her mind.

"It's just the way I am." Nodoka had somehow moved to within arm's reach and rested a hand on Ranma's shoulder. She slapped the hand away immediately. "Succubae hunt men, we're female demons, and you know that. Even if you had been a male succubus I would have had trouble caring for you."

"But now you want me to be like this." Ranma guessed, having trouble imagining just how selfish Nodoka could be. "That's why you always wanted me to be a girl."

"I always wanted my first child to be a girl, yes."

"Yea well don't have any more because you make a terrible mom." Avoiding contact with Nodoka, Ranma moved away to get out of the water. Her mother had completely ruined what should have been a time for relaxation. Her medium sized wings flared when Nodoka stopped her by grabbing her tail. "Let go of me－ now." She said through gritted teeth and Nodoka reluctantly released her.

"Or ya know what, go have another kid, cause I'm never going to be what you want." She remarked coldly as she left the bath, and used a bucket of water she had prepared to turn back into her real body. Too angry to take time to dry off, he wrapped a towel around his waist, and stormed out of the bath area, nearly running into Nabiki as he left.

X x x x x x

"Hey Pepa come here." Nabiki motioned for the fairy girl to quit bothering with a slightly larger doll that she had pilfered from Akane's room and to come to her. 'It took all of five minutes to teach her to steal, thank you Ranma for this interesting little gift.' She had been going to take a bath when she had caught mother and son talking in the bath. A conversation that lead to an idea. (3)

"Yes?" The fairy asked, flying over to hover in front of her.

"How much can you lift?" She asked, having figured out a way to get back at Ranma for that glitter prank.

X x x x x x

'This is so heavy!' Pepa whined while trying to lift the half-filled bucket out of the bath. Getting it up and on to the wooden floor that surrounded the lake sized bath, she stopped to sit down on the rim of the bucket to catch her breath. "Phew." Looking down at her package with a frown, she wondered how she was going to get it up to the upper floor. Nabiki wanted her to keep splashing Ranma with hot water during the night so he kept waking up as a girl. She wasn't too sure on why but Nabiki wanted it done.

"Excuse me."

"Hmm?" She looked up at a dark figure covered by a dark cloak. "Oh hello." She greeted.

"I've been looking for a tiefling, have you seen one?" The stranger asked.

"I've seen two!" She said, happy that she had learned to count. "There's Kasumi, she's nice and has golden hair and eyes, she gave me a cookie!" She crossed her arms and stared forward angrily. "But then there's Ranma and he－ she is really mean and she has bright red hair."

"The red haired one." The figure indicated.

"If you carry this I'll take you to her." She patted the bucket rim.

"Thank you." The figure reached out a hand and lifted the bucket off the ground.

"This way." She led the figure through the home up to the room that Ranma shared with the old man who turned into a black and white bear. The two occupants were sleeping, the elder snoring loudly enough to cover the younger's own.

"There's no tiefling here." The stranger said.

"You have to pour the water on him." She pointed to the teenager. "But make sure you don't wake him up because he can be a big meanie!"

"I have something for that." The figure pulled out a small glass vial with green liquid in it from his belt. "Are you sure that's her?"

"Uh huh." She nodded. "And that's her father, he turns into a bear."

"Alright." The figure bent down to pour the liquid into the open mouth of the sleeping boy. Ranma choked for a moment before rolling on to his side and staying asleep. "So just pour the water on him?"

"Yup."

The stranger poured the water on Ranma which initiated the gender and species change. "That's kind of different." The figure remarked, taking out a pair of metal shackles and affixing them to Ranma's wrists in front of her body and then at her ankles. "Thanks for the help." He told her, lifting the sleeping tiefling over his shoulder.

"You're welcome." She beamed. 'That means I did what Nabiki wanted, I bet she'll reward me!' She quickly flew off to the girl's room.

X x x x x x

Four days later

Ranma was jostled awake by her bed moving. She was in a strange position as well, not laying down but draped over something at her waist. She started to become aware of more and more things, she was outside, it was night, and there was something grasping her left buttock. She was also a she, when did that happen? Actually it was now painfully obvious that she was draped over the right shoulder of someone. When the said something on her shapely backside squeezed, Ranma's head and tail shot up.

"Hey!" She cried out, elbowing the one carrying her in the back of the head. Released, she fell to the ground on her stomach with a soft oof. "What's the big idea?" Ranma tried to get up but found that her wrists and ankles were bound with thick metal shackles. She was still wearing her tunic and shorts that she normally wore to bed on, so this wasn't another Kuno who stripped her down just to play dress up.

"Oh, you're up."

Ranma chose to ignore the chains for the moment, noticing the tall male figure standing over her. A dark cloak with a hood was bound around his neck. Covering his chest was a yellow tunic down that reached his knees that was bound at his waist by a leather belt supporting several item pouches. Completing his clothing were black pants tucked into boots. Resting against the side of his leg was a large traveling pack. His face was angular but slightly feminine except for his strong jaw. All of which was perfectly normal except for the charcoal gray skin, long pointed ears poking out of short white hair, and eyes with pupils that had a red glow.

"A Drow?" Ranma briefly struggled with the chains at her hands. "Why were you grabbing my ass?" She demanded angrily.

Looking like he was embarrassed, he dug into a pouch, and pulled out a small vial of green liquid. "Drink this." He tried to shove it into her mouth. Grabbing his wrist with her hands, she pulled him forward to plant her hooves under his chin.

"I aint drinking anything so lemme go." She demanded, trying to fly up to her feet, and finding that her innate magic was cut off.

"Heh, that hurt." The Drow rubbed at his chin.

'Not good.' She was chained up, cut off from the magic that would let her escape easily, and facing off against a Drow. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"I'm Ryoga." The Drow answered. "And what I want is for you to be a good slave and drink this so you'll sleep the rest of the way."

"Yea right." Awkwardly getting to her feet, she tried to hop away. "See ya." Something wrapping around her legs made her face meet the ground once again. "Knock it off!" She twisted around to find that he had used some kind of magic to make a long thin piece of cloth reach out and tie up her legs further.

"Good slaves don't talk back to their masters." He shook a finger disapprovingly and started to drag her back towards him.

"I'm not a slave you idiot!" Clawing at the dirty in a futile attempt to stop her movement, she was just turning back to face him when the small vial found its way into her mouth, and her cursed Saotome eat everything that enters your mouth reflex kicked in.

X x x x x x

The morning after Ranma was taken.

"To whoever it may concern, I've taken your daughter to be given to my beloved as a slave for a dowry. When the wedding date is set I'll send you invitations. Here's some coin that should cover her price. Sincerely, Ryoga."

Genma looked between the note and the small coin pouch that had one hundred gold in it. "The boy fetched twice that the last time he got himself sold into slavery, I hate cheap slavers."

X x x x x x

Author Notes

1 - Intimacy and sex are pretty normal to Nodoka and other succubae. How they go about it is an important factor. When being open and upfront they are showing that they think the individual is worthy of respect and they are trying to either be a dominant partner or merely friendly. If they are being subversive and using their charm ability than they see that being as food and little more.

2 - By this Kuno means that they would go to the home plane of whatever infernal being they were. Beings that are partial in either direction, divine or infernal, would go back to the plane matching their other nature.

3 - Nodoka went to her home after the conversation.

**Summoning **- Summoners are able to, depending on their skill level, summon beings from various planes of existence. Demon summoners risk their lives to do so, as an uncontrollable demon is likely to kill them. So they have developed a spell capable of binding the demon to their will. This spell needs to be renewed periodically but is able to control the demon completely. Divine summoners generally don't have this problem, cooperating rather than dominating their summon.

The initial summon is for a specific type of being, after this first contact then the summoner can recall that same individual. Many summoners will develop a relationship with the summon so they can work together better. Since the initial summon usually draws the being out of their day to day lives, most summoners will have some kind of gift or way to pacify the being.

**Cliché Staff Part 3  
A New Fighter Appears...  
By Bree R.**

Ranma was idly making her way home from a shopping trip for Kasumi. Her mind briefly went back to Genma's reintroduction to his mother. While at first Genma had tried to disabuse Nodoka's training of Ranma in the magical arts and more especially her specialization with her staff after his mother had engaged in what she called, 'deeper persuasive techniques' he had quickly capitulated. She had asked her mother to teach her these techniques but her response had been that, "Get your own nummies." before returning to the room that she was sharing with Genma with a glass of warm water to as she said it, "Try something new." whatever that meant. Just like her mother and father to keep all the new techniques to themselves Ranma pouted.

Still after that session Genma's protestations all fell apart and Ranma's mother joined in training every morning. Some of the techniques were only practiced after the Tendo's were asleep at Genma's urging. Ranma still couldn't understand Genma's reluctance she was learning techniques that would stop even the most dedicated fighter. All it took was a little jiggle here or a little flash there and instant win. Ranma scowled. Her father was such a hypocrite teaching her to adapt and improvise and add everything to her style while being ashamed at what Nodoka was teaching her.

Sighing Ranma's steps faltered. Her father just didn't understand her new calling in life. The Staff had found her, granted her power far beyond any other tiefling or mortal. All her training, all her life she had been searching for a purpose beyond merely fighting. Now she was doing something important on the cosmic scale of things. Sure plenty of the gods had champions and clerics but the demons? Who did they have to protect them from the zealous wrath of the bigots? No one but her...and their own machinations and evil plots and evilly aligned gods and goddesses her battered conscience piped up but she instantly slammed shut that particular thought process happy to bask in her own feelings of superiority.

Coming back to herself she continued on her way home when she felt the use of clerical spells being tossed around near home and through her newly developed emotional link to her mother sensed her in some distress. Summoning her Staff and silently invoking its power she transformed.

Sprouting her wings to their full extension she made her way home and noticed that loon from Akane's School trying to fling some sort of flying pink heart at his mother. Stowing her staff behind her back she grabbed one of the ribbons that decorated her horns and effortlessly transformed it into her mother's favored weapon a long purple whip. She had the brief desire to announce her presence with a corny speech but managed to stifle it. While still in midair she lashed out with the whip catching Kuno's arms with the motion.

"What!" Kuno exclaimed. "Another demoness attempting to further corrupt the demonically cursed Tendos? I a cleric of the beneficent goddess..." Kuno was cut off as Ranma lashed out with yet another whip catching Kuno's legs causing him to topple to the ground.

"Heh! Not so tough didn't even need to transform for this." Ranma remarked casually.

"Fool! You dare harm a servant of the great goddess Mico! She will tear you limb from limb callous demon! Free me so that I may return you to the pit where..." Kuno was cut off as the seductively dressed Ranma casually transformed yet another ribbon from her uniform into a ball gag and stuffed it securely into Kuno's mouth before going to check on her mother who was obviously injured. She also noticed her fiancée the dragon-tiefling Kasumi looking on from the household.

"Geeze. What a loud mouth. You ok Mom?" Ranma asked.

"I'll be fine in a minute dear. This idiot cleric came over here shouting about how I was an evil demoness out to corrupt and seduce you and the Tendo girls into evil." Nodoka exasperatingly proclaimed. Her tail then drooped. "Just because it's true is no reason to try to banish me."

"Hehe yeah about that." Ranma began only to trail off as the floating construct suddenly slammed into her mothers form causing her to silently scream in pain before vanishing.

"No! Mom! H－how?" Ranma asked before turning her gaze to stare hatefully at the bound and gagged Kuno. In shock she failed to notice as the same small construct came into contact with her. White light spread out over her body knocking her to the ground and causing her to lose control over her transformed ribbons freeing Kuno from his bondage.

"Hmm...still resisting the banishment foul demon?" Kuno remarked cooly. "I doubt you can keep it up for long wretch." Before watching in amusement as Ranma continued to struggle against the banishment spell spell. It came as a shock to both when a small magical fireball detonated into Kuno's back. Shocked and injured but still on his feet Kuno turned about quickly searching for his attacker only to see the form of Kasumi Tendo staring at him, her bright golden eyes drawn back to slits.

"You will leave my fiancée alone." Kasumi proclaimed her tail lashing about angrily matching the fire in her suddenly reptilian eyes. "Return Lady Nodoka and leave my home."

"Nodoka? Ah you mean the demon. She has been forced to return to her home plane." Kuno said proudly. "Now stand aside Lady Kasumi." He abruptly tunred his back on the enraged dragon-tiefling and gathered more power to amplify the banishment spell only to be knocked from his feet by another magical spell. With Kuno knocked to the ground Kasumi ran to the still pinned Ranma.

"Ranma are you alright?" Kasumi asked desperately. Seeking a means to free the stricken girl.

"He－he got my Mom." Ranma replied tears in her eyes both from seeing her mother banished and the constant pain she was being subjected to from the holy lightning that continued to burn her. "Look out Kasumi-chan!" The warning came to late as the crazed cleric of Mico threw another holy lightning spell at the unprotected dragon-tifeling's back.

"I did not want to hurt you Lady Kasumi but you left me no choice." Kuno proclaimed haughtily as he again began to advance on Ranma's still prone form.

Desperate Ranma stared at her now injured and unmoving fiancée willing her to be safe. To her shock a piece of her still stowed Staff burst from her back and landed in Kasumi's hands. Somehow revived from the contact with a fragment from Ranma's mystical staff Kasumi stood up shakily. "You've gotta transform Kasumi-chan!" Ranma called out.

Kasumi only looked at the small wooden wand in her hand before nodding and calling out, "Bellulus Serpens Proeliator Malum!" A burst of red energy burst out at her proclamation blowing Kuno away from the still pinned Ranma and right into a tree knocking him very unconscious and freeing the prone Ranma. As the bright red energy dispersed a much changed Kasumi could be seen. Her horns were decorated with four red ribbons with an obsidian gem at each of their centers. She was wearing a near totally sheer red bustier on her chest with black sequin hearts scattered randomly throughout the outfit. A bright lacy bra could be seen easily through the fabric. She was also wearing a similar leather skirt to Ranma's own but in red, showing off her usually concealed but quite shapely legs. Her tail artfully peeked out from underneath her skirt and was neatly decorated with a large red bow near the end with an obsidian gem at its center. She had sprouted long sharp golden claws from her hands and feet however giving her a cute but deadly look. Finally coming out of the magically induced stupor Kasumi looked down on herself in wonder.

"What just happened?" Kasumi asked in near shock while staring at the similarly dressed red-headed succubus-tiefling next to her. "Oh I feel so exposed." She tugged on the bottom of her skirt in an attempt to make the material cover more.

"I think my Staff broke off part of its power to protect you! Welcome to the team Kasumi-chan!" Ranma proclaimed happily hugging her fiancée. "I was so worried that you were going to get hurt." Ranma said softly.

"Team? Wait? We're...Magical Girls?" Kasumi asked. Ranma nodded happily her tail mimicking the motions of her head. "Really! Ooh I've always dreamed of this! Saving the world from danger, protecting innocents, having mysterious licentious liaisons. This is such a dream come true!" Kasumi proclaimed her body vibrating with happiness. "What exactly is our mission? Are we reincarnated warriors from an old kingdom fighting enemies? Gathering spell fragments? Stopping sex fiends? Making the world safe for democracy? Imperialism?"

Ranma simply shook her head to each frenzied question. "No Kasumi-chan we're Beautiful Warriors in the Defense of Love..." Kasumi only nodded excitedly beaming. "and Seduction!" Ranma finished proudly to which Kasumi looked on aghast.

"Love and...seduction?" Kasumi asked frowning. "All my girlish childhood dreams destroyed just like that..." Kasumi sniffed.

"What's that Kasumi-chan?" Ranma asked obliviously. "Oh no! We've gotta go save my Mom!" Ranma suddenly said worriedly.

Kasumi simply continued to whimper as Ranma made her way over to the unconscious cleric of Miko. "I'm so sorry Mommy...I didn't want to be a bad girl I've tried so hard to resist the urges to burn the city to the ground." Kasumi continued while Ranma tried to knock the unconscious cleric back to consciousness with increasingly larger blunt weapons she was quickly forming from one of her ribbons. Thankfully before Kuno could sustain permanent brain damage a black portal suddenly appeared in the Tendo yard.

"...sky and thanks to you too Walter! You always make the best swirly transport gates!" Nodoka said happily exiting the black swirling gate before it vanished.

"Mom!" Ranma exclaimed dropping Kuno onto the ground and running to Nodoka's side and hugging her. "What happened? I thought that idiot banished you!"

"Heh...the silly boy forgot to burn a marker into my essence forbidding me entrance back to this plane. It was simple matter to return by calling in a few favors. Oh my and you added another to your team daughter!" Nodoka said smiling at the still flabbergasted Kasumi.

Ranma nodded happily. "So what do we do with that idiot over there?" Ranma said scowling at the slowly recovering Tatewaki Kuno.

As Kuno began to stand however the tree under which he was resting suddenly burst into life and a short green haired dryad stepped out. "Man you lot really know how to wake a girl up from her sleep. What's all the racket been?" The unnamed dryad stated while Ranma and Nodoka looked on shocked at her appearance. Sadly for the recovering Kuno he latched on to what he thought was only a tree and grabbed on to a rather soft spot of the dryads anatomy. "Ow! Why you little." the dryad began only to stop after getting a closer look at the boy. "Oooh what a anxious little cutey! I'll be leaving now." With that the dryad bowed and re-entered her tree dragging the semi-comatose cleric of Mico with her.

"Well that was awfully convenient." Ranma remarked dryly.

"Now now daughter. Shush. Bree is simply telling us we went way too long for what's supposed to be an omake. If it goes much longer things will definitely need to be cut and then where will we be?" Nodoka calmly stated. "Come on child. Oooh the games I can teach you to play with those cute claws!" she said latching onto Kasumi's arm and forcing her to walk slowly back towards the Tendo estate.

"I promise you I'll resist them Mama." Kasumi continued to mutter oblivious to the world.


	4. Fix It Yourself

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

Spoken spell

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

X x x x x x

'These guys are pretty good.' Ranma lamented, rocking side to side as the horse drawn cart traveled across the dark landscape. The last time she had ended up a slave, her captors had been so inept at keeping her locked up that she was free within two days. These Drow though, they seemed to have the whole thing down to a science. Tapping a fingernail against the exotic metal bars of the cage that she was in along with three others, she wouldn't be breaking out any time soon. Barely over a meter high and three meters long, it certainly wasn't made for the comfort of its passengers.

The other occupants to the cage were two human women in their twenties and a teenage boy Ranma's age. There was something a little off about the boy and Ranma couldn't say what. He was tall and muscular with a heavy beard shadow to his face. From the scars and heavy calloused hands, she assumed he was some type of enforcer or arena fighter. Like Ranma, he was sitting with his own side of the cage to himself, the two humans taking up one side. All three of the other occupants looked like they had spent their lives as slaves and wore simple clothing made from a thick brown material.

She had woken up locked in the cart just in time to see the last view of the sky before it was blocked by the ceiling to the cave they were moving through. The ceiling felt like it was kilometers above, it was so high that it was partially obscured by clouds that formed at the border between the Underdark and surface world. She had heard about this place but had never visited. Up above on the rim of the far side of the cliff was a Drow surface city, one of several that allowed their main cities underground to trade with the surface world. When she had seen a map of the area she had thought the entrance to the Underdark looked like a scar because it stretched nearly fifty kilometers and was ten kilometers at its greatest width.

Looking back, she could see the path that lead down the cliff face, which must have taken a full day to come down. They were part of a convoy of carriages, though from what she could see the others were not carrying more slaves but cargo. Ranma was a little worried about this, the Underdark wasn't known as a pleasant place before adding in the Drow.

"Hey, tiefling." The boy drew her attention. "Who's your master?" He asked, looking at her with disdain. "Letting you wear long hair like that."

"No one." She answered, finally noticing that the other three in the cage did all have their hair cut short.

He laughed to himself cruelly. "A new slave huh?" The rough looking teen slid over towards her. "So why the shackles? You don't look like much."

"Get em off and I'll show you how much I am." She boasted.

"I don't have any keys." He sneered, learning in far too close to her face with his nostrils flaring, and the tip of his tongue being bit between his teeth. "And I kind of like that you're all tied up."

"Quiet down in there." The carriage driver's voice interrupted before Ranma could insult the other teen. The feral boy growled, but moved away.

"I don't need your dog messing with my property." Ryoga berated the driver from his seat next to him.

"You want to get out and walk boy? Just because your mother contracts us to deliver her goods doesn't mean I follow your orders."

"Fine, but if she gets damaged." Ryoga warned.

"I won't care."

Waiting for the two Drow to finish talking, Ranma smirked at the boy. "He just saved your life." She snorted haughtily, earning a glare. She wasn't about to back down from some arena thug even if she was vulnerable at the moment. Settling into a more comfortable position, she kept a wary eye on the other teen. 'Whatever he is, I don't like it.'

X x x x x x

Seven days ago

Nodoka hummed to herself as she invited herself into the Tendo home for breakfast. Ranma's words from last night had stung but she wasn't going to take it personally. Her daughter was just under a lot of stress at the moment and once things blew over then the tiefling would regret her words.

"Good morning." She greeted the humans and tiefling gathered around the low table. "Hmm, something wrong?" She asked, noticing that the mood in the room was serious, and that Ranma was not in attendance.

"Someone kidnapped Ranma." Kasumi answered.

"The boy only fetched one hundred gold this time." Genma uncrossed his arms to hand her a piece of paper.

"Strange." She remarked, wondering why a slaver would leave a note like this. "So this has happened before?" She asked Genma.

"Twice." The human answered.

"Like mother like daughter." She said to herself absently. "So what were you going to have for breakfast? I could help if you want."

"You're not worried at all?" The youngest Tendo asked.

"Not particularly."

"You are a bad mother." The red fairy shot up to her and floated in the air while pointing an accusing finger at her nose. "Even if your child is an evil demon."

"I'm a demon too." She flicked the tiny girl in the head sending her spinning off across the table.

"Demon be gone!" Pepa shouted and flew over to hit her over the head with a tiny mallet. "It didn't work again." The fairy whined.

"Obviously." She slammed a hand down on the fairy to crush her to the table and hold her down.

"The boy will escape eventually, no reason to worry." Genma assured Akane.

"Still, shouldn't we do something?" Kasumi was obviously worried about the other tiefling and Nodoka smiled at that.

"It's good training." Genma nodded to himself.

"Although." Nodoka said slowly. "I suppose those other times were with Ranma as a human?" Genma nodded at her question. "Because a tiefling does have some infernal weaknesses that may make it harder." She had been enslaved by a summoner herself and had upon gaining her freedom found as much information as possible so that it would never happen again. "It all really depends on who could sneak in here and kidnap Ranma without being caught.

"He didn't sneak." The fairy under her hand was finally able to squirm out and shoot off to hide behind Kasumi. "He helped carry the bucket of hot water up to the room."

"What did you do?" Nabiki grabbed the fairy, jumping into the conversation with far too much force.

"He asked where a tiefling was and I showed him." Pepa said quickly.

"What did he look like?" Akane asked.

"He had really dark skin, long pointy ears, and his eyes glowed red." The magical construct explained.

"A Drow." Nodoka summarized.

"Did I do a bad thing?" Pepa looked between Nabiki, Kasumi, and Akane.

"Yes." Akane answered loudly.

X x x x x x

It felt like hours since they had entered into a pitch black tunnel and Ranma was about to go insane from the boredom. Nothing to see or do and there wasn't any conversation between her and the three slaves. Mostly because she had no desire to talk to the boy and the two women were terrified of her. She also really needed to relieve her bladder. Whatever potion Ryoga had used on her to keep her asleep had basically stopped bodily functions as far as she could tell. A small consolation for however long she was out.

Slowly she started to be able to see again and the light grew until it was bright enough to clearly see everything while remaining dark enough that it was hard to make out details. Moving to the side of the cage, she did her best to see what was coming up. The walls suddenly fell away, the tunnel ending with a gray stone arch marking its entrance.

At first Ranma thought they had exited the cave and were now outside but quickly realized that like the entrance to the Underdark, the ceiling shot up to a height over a kilometer overhead. Only now there was something coating it that mimicked stars.

"Wow." Ranma breathed out, the caravan moving down a slope once again that ran along the side of the cave towards a city below.

The city dominated the cavern floor and was made up of several tiered layers. Sections of the city remained low to the floor while others reached up forming Drow made stalagmites. Ranma couldn't tell what the material was but they appeared to be made from various shades of dark gray stone. Dull blue, white, and red lights outlined the form of the buildings to add to the illumination of the cavern. The sheer scope and size of it would rival any city on the surface and it had a dark beauty to being that it would always be trapped in night.

'I bet Kasumi would have liked to see this.' She thought. Even to her it was a strange and incredible sight.

Ranma didn't let this time go to waste, trying to memorize everything around her so that when it came time to escape she would know where to go. That long tunnel without any light would have to be traversed in this form so she could create a light source. Other than that she reasoned that with flight as an advantage, nothing would be able to stop her once she was free of the cage and the shackles that were cutting off her magic. Then again, she shouldn't get so confident about that. The Drow weren't so notorious because they were a bunch of incompetent idiots.

They had barely started down the slope before the caravan turned off on to a platform with a small village of tiny buildings setup. Many of them had shops setup in the front selling goods and all of them were staffed by a Drow, and most of the non-Drow looked like slaves.

"Get the mounts fed, we leave in an hour." The male Drow driving the lead carriage yelled.

"Hey, I need to use the bush of many uses." She told the man as he walked by.

"I suppose, I don't want to be cleaning up my cage." Digging out a key, he opened the lock, and swung the entire back side of the cage opened. "Alright, get out."

"Do you expect me to just hop around?" Ranma held up the others from getting out and pointed towards her ankle shackles.

"Shut up." He barked but used another key to remove the ankle shackles. "Now get out."

'Damn.' Ranma had been hoping to get him to take off the wrist ones too since she figured they were what was hindering her use of magic.

"You two." The man pointed to two other Drow who looked like they were there for protection. "Guard them."

"Yes sir." They nodded.

Led to where a dozen outhouse style stalls were setup near the edge of the platform, Ranma quickly did her business but remained in the small enclosure trying to do any kind of magic. 'Guess I'm going to have to play along long enough for them to take these off.' She couldn't even change the size of her wings, the most basic magic she had ever figured out.

Shutting the door behind her, she noticed that the two guards weren't really paying attention. Since escaping now would be a useless gesture, she went up to them. "Can I get some water?" She asked.

"Later." The shorter one answered without a thought. "Come on." He grabbed her by the chain binding her wrists to drag her back towards the cage. "Stupid demon spawn." Ranma bit back the urge to fight back. Changing into her real body wouldn't help anything and now that she had considered it, doing so with the shackles in place may not be such a good idea with how tight they were.

"What are you doing?" Ryoga demanded when she got back to the caravan. "She's not to be harmed."

"I'm not, sir." The one holding her answered while releasing her with a slight tug towards the waiting cage. "She was taking too long."

"Alright, well get her back in the cage, and then get them food." Ryoga instructed.

"Yes sir." The taller Drow guard nodded.

Taking her time before getting back in, Ranma laced her fingers together, and stretched her arms high up over her head while trying to give the lone guard an enticing view. He had good self-control but she saw his eyes move down to her bust that was being pushed out. "Is there any way you could take these off?" She asked innocently as she slowly dropped her arms down in front of her. It may have been Nodoka's influence on her at the moment but she knew the power that the female body could have over men long before meeting her mother.

"I was told not to." The Drow glanced over where Ryoga was nervously.

"Please." Ranma brought up her right hand to chew on her index finger. She could tell that the Drow's resistance to the idea was quickly evaporating. Having no reason to want the chains on in the first place, he felt that it would damage her wrists which would lower her value. "Just for a little while."

She was already imagining what she would do, knock him out, grab Ryoga and throw him over the edge so she wouldn't have to worry about him again, and then high tail it back down that tunnel to freedom. Planning murder wasn't a normal part of her day, but this wasn't a normal day. Her thoughts on how to end this situation permanently were interrupted when she noticed that there was a slight pressure to her eyes and she could see a noticeable change in the Drow's demeanor.

"I suppose if it's just for a little while." He started to dig for the key, trying every one of them on the keychain. "Guess I don't have the key for those."

"Oh." Ranma said numbly, realizing what she had just done.

"You should get back in." He jerked his head in the direction of the cage.

"You'll bring me some nice food though?" The pressure returned and her eyes started to hurt from it.

"I shouldn't, but alright."

Pleased with that, Ranma returned to the cage with her hands still bound, the three slaves who had already returned obediently seemed to move away slightly. Now would have been the best time to escape but this new development seemed more pressing at the moment. 'I charmed someone.' She had never done that, never even considered it to be a possibility. When food was brought just before they were to set out again, she only drank enough water to sate her thirst, and gave the rest to the three slaves. She didn't want to touch something she had received by doing that.

'Did Nodoka teach me how to do it without me realizing it?' It wasn't that her time spent with her mother was a blurry haze, she could remember things clearly, and none of it had to do with charming. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she rested her chin on them to stare forward blankly. Nodoka probably didn't bring up anything to do with charming because it might have alerted her to what was going on. Sighing, she decided that it actually wasn't that terrible. Compared to the rest of the things she had to deal with, being ultra-convincing wasn't the worst, and was actually kind of helpful.

'When I get free, I'm going to go find a way to change back for good. No more distractions.' She resolved, sick to death of this body and its quirks.

X x x x x x

Five days ago

Kasumi's normally serene face was twisted into a scowl at finding another weed in her garden. Pulling it out and making sure to get the roots, she put it to the side only to find that more had sprung up in its place. Her shoulders slumped and she grabbed what she had already taken out to throw in her compost bin. Gardening was a lost cause for today. Whenever she was upset about something she started to magically spawn weeds.

"Is something wrong?" Pepa asked, the fairy had been flying around the garden while she had been working.

Kasumi wanted to yes and that it was the spell constructs fault Ranma had been taken away to be a slave. If Pepa hadn't led that Drow right to Ranma he might not have been able to take him. "I'm worried about Ranma." She decided was a neutral enough statement.

The fairy scrunched up her face in thought. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Not unless you can find him." Kasumi had considered trying to do it herself but she wasn't skilled enough and she was honestly a little afraid to leave the safety of Nerima.

"I think I can." Pepa boasted.

"How?" She asked, not knowing how the tiny girl had come to be or what she was capable of. Pepa said that Ranma had been involved in the process but beyond that it was like she had simply appeared out of thin air.

"I don't know." Slowly turning in the air, Pepa went back and forth until she decided on a direction. "But I think she's that way."

Kasumi twisted her head to the side while appraising the tiny magical creature. "Are you sure?"

"Uh huh." Pepa nodded enthusiastically. "I could go look for her if you wanted?"

"I don't know." The fairy did seem to be impervious to physical attacks and was capable of flying at very high speeds. Pepa also ate very little or nothing at all and never truly slept. Then again this was a way for Kasumi to help out. "Would you? But be careful."

"Don't worry, I'll save that mean ol tiefling for you!" Pepa announced and shot off in the direction she had pointed out earlier.

"Be safe." She called to the light fairy. Wringing her hands nervously, she headed inside to get cleaned up with small patches of weeds popping up behind her as she walked. Washing off her hands and her tail, she was stopped from going to change into clean clothes by Nabiki.

"Hey Kasumi, have you seen Pepa around?" Her younger sister asked. "I need her to do something."

"Actually she volunteered to go look for Ranma." Kasumi answered before giving her sister a hard look. "Nabiki, why was Pepa trying to splash Ranma with water during the night?" She hadn't been able to talk to her sister about this before but now she had time.

"Uh-." Nabiki floundered for a response. "Who knows what she thinks?"

"Nabiki." She said accusingly.

"I was just getting back at him for that glitter thing. Have him wake up as a girl for a few days- or weeks, and that was it." Her sister admitted.

"You don't know that it was Ranma." She had avoided this topic for fear of letting Nabiki know that she knew that it was Ranma who had done that.

"No, I know that it was Ranma, I can't prove it." Nabiki clarified.

"Either way, when Ranma and Pepa get back you should apologize to both of them."

"For what?"

"You should apologize to Pepa for using her and to Ranma for your mean prank." She explained while trying to sound as disappointed in her sisters actions as possible.

"Fine." Nabiki caved into her demands.

"Good- and could you please tell Father that the hand pump needs to be repaired? The handle seems to have rusted and become stuck." Kasumi knew why that happened, along with creating weeds and other undesirable plants, she also tended to break things.

"Yea yea." Nabiki quickly left the kitchen before she could request anything else.

X x x x x x

Ranma was even more impressed by the city now that they were moving through it. For a city so far underground it was a bustling metropolis. Everywhere Drow were going about their daily lives, small children were playing, and it all seemed rather mundane. She didn't miss that nearly all of them were Drow, the only non-Drow looked like they were slaves.

The carriage drew to a stop at the base of a tiered area of the city that had a circular palace like structure on the top. Eight towards were positioned equally around the structure, a ramp lead up to a four meter high gate. The caravan didn't use it, taking a side path to go down, and under the castle to where a large warehouse area was positioned. Spaced around the enclosed area were large round columns to support the massive structure overhead. In the center of the room the path split off and the caravan broke apart.

Her carriage came to a stop in an area with a long building running lengthwise to the path. The front was open showing that the interior was made up of at least one row of small cells with heavy bars. Most of the cells were open without any occupants but some had occupants of various races.

"Out." The driver commanded, opening up the cage.

"Come with me." Ryoga grabbed her by the upper arm and dragged her away from the three slaves. Ranma wasn't too sure if she should be happy about this or not.

Finally getting sick of him touching her, she pulled herself free. "I've been pretty accommodating considering you kidnapped me and want to be a slave, so why don't you fill me in why you did that." She demanded, all too aware that she wasn't in a position to demand anything at the moment.

"I guess." Ryoga shifted into a more casual stance. "You're a dowry and if you know what's good for you, you won't do anything that'll screw this up for me when I give you to her."

"I've never been a wedding gift before." She commented with a sigh. "So how about getting rid of these?" She indicated the shackles.

"Later." He grabbed a thin chain from a nearby table and fixed it around the chain between her wrists. "Just so you don't wander off."

'I'll give you wander off.' She thought irritably while being pulled along. Doing her best to be slow, she inspected some of the wares that were already being unloaded from another carriage. Some strange clothing caught her eye because it was weaved with some kind of special fabric that made it almost reflective.

"Is that?" Ranma gulped at the two and a half meter high semi-circle arch that Ryoga was dragging her towards. Inside the arch was what looked like a dull blue liquid swirling chaotically with brighter blue streaks rising up and vanishing randomly. "I'm not good with portals."

"You'll be fine." He told her, not in any way concerned for her wellbeing but trying to give her a command.

Ranma remembered the last time she had taken a portal to move around a city and had no desire to repeat the experience. "Seriously, me and portals don't mix."

Ryoga didn't answer except to walk through the portal. Struggling to stay on this side of the magical gateway, her hooves offered no traction on the stone floor, and she was pulled through. Everything turned inside out, upside down, right became left, left became right, and Ranma landed face down on a smooth hard surface.

"Quit making a scene." Ryoga growled at her and hauled her to her feet.

"I told you." She started to say before it felt like her entire digestive tract was involved in throwing up on Ryoga's shirt. There wasn't much but it certainly stained the expensive yellow tunic the Drow was wearing. "I don't feel so good." She grimaced at the aftertaste.

"I'll kill you!" Ryoga pulled back a fist to strike her but was stopped by a loud and haughty female laughter. "Satsuki." The Drow gasped and quickly grabbed the tail ends of his cloak to tie across his chest in a futile attempt to cover up the mess she had made of his clothing.

Ranma forced the world to stop doing backflips long enough to notice where she had been transported to. The level they were on was a large oval made with a reflective black marble floor. Six tall windows lined the walls, opening up the room to the outside air. A flight of stairs rose up to a second floor that was currently hidden from view. Standing at the top was a tall beautiful Drow woman with long silver hair trailing down to her knees in two braids on the sides of her head.

"As worthless as ever." The woman remarked while slowly making her way down the steps. She had on a dark violet dress that was so long that it hid her feet and trailed along the floor behind her. Following the woman were three others in similar dresses who looked to be the same age. It was hard to tell with elves how old they were, like a lot of other long lived races they aged quickly before slowing down. "I was just coming to meet Sentaro. Instead I get to see you and this- demon spawn."

"She's a gift." Ryoga dug into his cloak and pulled out a scroll to hand to her. "A message from my mother."

"Your mother?" Satsuki asked, taking Ryoga more seriously, and unfurling the scroll and started to read. "She can't be serious." Her mouth scrunched up into a sneer.

"Would my mother joke about something like this?" Ryoga smiled victoriously.

The Drow woman looked like she wanted to behead Ryoga right where he was standing before turning her gaze on to Ranma. "What am I supposed to do with some demon spawn slave who looks like you simply grabbed her off the street?"

She would have explained that Ryoga had snuck into her room at night to do it but was too busy trying to keep her stomach under control.

"She's strong in magic and if you splash her with cold water she changes genders." Ryoga explained helpfully.

"I'm a guy." Ranma was able to point out.

"Slaves don't need their tongues." Satsuki remarked and Ranma nodded. Whatever was in that note wasn't good news so it probably wouldn't be a good idea to push her luck. "I can tell you right now that we cannot go along with this dowry."

"What? Why?" Ryoga asked angrily.

"This slave is far too wild to be worth anything. My slaves have their own duties to attend to that preclude them from training her. I'll accept this when you have properly trained her."

"Me?" The Drow male asked.

"Consider it a test of your worth."

"A test? I'll pass any test!" Ryoga boasted.

"I'm glad you feel that way." Satsuki smiled in a very unfriendly way. "Sanae, please process the new slave while I go talk to Sentaro about the latest shipment."

"Yes Lady Satsuki." The Drow bowed respectfully. "Which brand do you want?"

"Branding?" Ranma gulped. 'Stupid no good shackles.' She unsubtly tried to break the chain holding the cuffs together.

"My families." The woman answered, walking past Ryoga, and trailing a finger along the male's ear. "You can stay in the slave quarters while you're here. To be closer to your- project."

"The slave quarters?" Ryoga asked before melting at the woman's touch. "If that's what you want."

'What a dope.' Ranma wondered how such a buffoon could actually kidnap her.

X x x x x x

Waking up with a wince, Ranma rolled over to her right side. The reason for her wince was the brand that now adorned her left shoulder blade. She couldn't see it herself but the slaves she had seen all had a circle outline with two koru spiraling towards the center before almost touching. They used magic to apply it but that didn't mean it felt any better than if they had used hot metal. (1)

The slave quarters were segregated based on gender. This building was a long open barracks with thin mats on the floor. There were toilet facilities through one doorway and another had a very basic bath area. Along the wall next to that door was a set of shelves filled with the uniform all the slaves wore. They were dresses made from a dull purple material. The back was open to show off the brand and the front tied behind the neck. Wide belts were used to tie at the waist to conform to the wearers figure since the dresses themselves were all the same size. Ranma assumed that the Drow had the women do household chores and other jobs that were seen by the public. She had no clue what the men did.

There was also segregation based on trust. Ranma being without any was in a small cell the far end from the entrance. Her hands were still shackled and she was currently wearing one of the slave dresses, her clothes having been forcibly ripped from her body when being brought here. Humiliation seemed to be a part of the Drow slaving methodology.

Outside her cell were close to forty women of various ages and races. Some were sleeping, others were coming back from the outside, and some were chatting quietly in small groups. All had their hair cut short, a fashion trend that Ranma was part of for the moment since her ponytail had been cut off.

"Psst." A tiny voice appeared next to her head.

'Am I hearing things?' She wondered, her stomach choosing that moment to growl in anger at not having eaten anything recently. Propping herself up on her right arm, she found herself face to face with a familiar fairy made of red light. "What are you doing here?" She whispered, shocked but not wanting to alert anyone.

"Kasumi asked me to find you and I did." Pepa answered, dropping to stand on the floor, and sounding extremely pleased with herself. Normally the fairy was rather bright but at the moment her intensity was barely enough to see her. Which was good because there were few lights in the building, just softly glowing blue orbs placed every few meters overhead.

Glancing over her shoulder out the cage door, Ranma saw that no one was alerted to the spell constructs presence. She considered trying to get Pepa to get the key to the shackles but doubted the fairy could actually find them. "Can you try and undo this lock?" She held out her hands.

"Okay." Hopping forward, Pepa was able to fit one hand into the lock. Immediately the fairy's brightness dimmed and she jumped back. "That hurt!" The tiny girl quickly flew away out of reach.

"Oops." Ranma had forgotten that the fairy was made out of magic, so obviously something that cut it off would do the same to her. Boots on the hard floor alerted her to someone walking towards her cell. "Hide." She commanded and after a brief hesitation the fairy vanished from sight. Turning around on the floor, she found a Drow at the door already pulling out a key to unlock the door.

"Come with me and be quiet." The woman ordered while swinging open the door. A long cloak hid most of her body and a hood hid her face except for the two red glowing pupils.

'This is interesting.' Ranma raised an eyebrow and got to her feet.

Deciding to satisfy her curiosity, she followed the Drow back into the large main home, and up a long spiral staircase. It was hard to tell if it was night or day but she felt that on the surface it would be considered quite late or early in the morning. The stairs finally ended at a set of double doors that lead to an opulent room. She felt like she had just walked into some nobles room.

The ceiling form a cone with a magical illusion of a sky filled with stars hanging overhead. Small blue magic lights floated above mounts on the walls to provide low light to the room. A large four post bed with translucent silk drapes sat off to one side. Plush furniture was scattered around the perimeter and Ranma could see a walk in closet filled with clothing. Everything was done in shades of gray, white, blue, and purple.

Sitting on a white wooden chair was Satsuki in a negligee made from a shimmering white fabric the contrasted against her dark skin. Satsuki's long hair was being brushed behind her by a girl of about ten who unsettled Ranma for some reason. This girl was a slave with short white hair and when she turned to see who had entered, Ranma found that her irises were a bright gold. (2)

"Leave us." Satsuki commanded and the small girl bowed her head before depositing the brush on a vanity before leaving. The young girl kept a wary eye on Ranma as she passed, appearing to feel similarly about her. "You as well."

"Yes Lady Satsuki." The Drow who had brought her here closed the door on her way out.

"What is your name demon spawn?" Satsuki stood up smoothly from her chair.

"Ranma Saotome." She answered, intensely curious over why she had been asked to come here. Ranma felt that she should protest the demon spawn remark, but then again it was true.

"My clan name is Miyakoji." The Drow woman padded over to sit down on a cushioned piece of furniture. "What I am about to say does not leave this room, if I find that it has then you will not like the consequences."

"Sure I guess."

"Ryoga, the one who brought you here, is part of the Hibiki family. He is infatuated with me and has been trying to convince me to marry him for some time. I cannot simply slay him for his impudence because his family controls all trade through Juuban, the surface city. Now, his mother has offered me an ultimatum, accept you as a dowry and marry him. Or lose all my business with the surface."

The Drow woman shifted on the seat. "The only way I can avoid marrying that insufferable fool is if he was shown to be the fool that he is publicly. I can declare him unfit and not even his mother would force the issue then."

"And you're telling me this why? It's not like I like you any better than him if you're looking for some sympathetic ear."

"Even if I were to give you your freedom?"

"After you went through all the trouble to do this?" She turned sideways to show off her new body decoration.

"All part of the act." Satsuki waved her hand dismissively. "If I had waited to do that it would have been suspicious, no Drow waits to brand their slaves."

"So what do you want me to do?" Ranma wasn't too sure about that explanation since she wasn't familiar enough with the Drow to make a judgment.

"Escape while under his watch and go back to the surface."

"I already planned to escape, what good is just leaving going to do, he knows where I live." Ranma figured that it was assumed that she would make an escape attempt so there was no reason to hide it. "I don't feel like having some crazy Drow after me."

"I wouldn't worry about that." Satsuki smiled maliciously. "The Underdark can be a very dangerous place for a surface Drow like him after all."

Ranma briefly wondered why she was so casually dealing in someone's life but justified it by Ryoga already dealing in hers. "Get these off of me and you have a deal." She held up her hands.

"So long as you escape under his watch."

"Of course."

X x x x x x

"And exactly what are you going to try and do?" Ranma asked, amused over Ryoga's inability to figure out what he was supposed to do to make her a good slave. Pepa was invisibly sitting on her shoulder, the only sign of her presence was the tiny weight she could feel.

"Shut up." The Drow replied irritably. "Why don't you go get me some food to start?"

"Not that I would, but I have no clue where the kitchen is." Ranma answered, rubbing at her wrists, the shackles having been removed. All she had to do was find the right moment. She had been dragged to the male quarters where Ryoga had stayed the prior night. The only reason she hadn't flown off already was that she wanted to poke at Ryoga. "How bout instead you get me some food."

The scowl on Ryoga's face made enduring all of this worthwhile. There were several male slaves that were in the quarters who she saw smile a bit before hastily looking away. A Drow guard near the entrance openly snickered. "You're lucky that you would be real ugly if I knocked out all your teeth."

"You're lucky there are a bunch of smart people around that could tell you what you're supposed to do."

"Maybe I will."

"Well get to it then."

"Stay right here." Ryoga ordered, his teeth clenched so tightly that she thought they would break.

'Yea right.' Stretching out her medium sized wings and flapping them once, she jumped to her feet. Having had what amounted to breakfast for these people, some kind of bread and strange vegetables, she saw no reason other than bothering Ryoga to remain. Also, the sooner she left, the sooner she would be able to be back to normal.

Following Ryoga out the entrance to the slave quarters, the guard didn't seem to care since others were coming and going freely to and from their duties. The courtyard inside the walls was setup like a garden with pathways that lead to the entrance of each building and was carefully maintained by male slaves. Sparsely placed were strange trees that were shaped like mushrooms with white bark and bright blue leaves.

She was surprised to find Ryoga sitting off to the side reading a scroll. "What are you reading?" She asked, disguising her voice by dropping the masculine edge she added.

"It's instructions on how to break a slaves will." Ryoga answered, too engrossed in his reading to notice who was asking the question. "And how to properly train them."

"So you're reading slaving for dummies!" She yelled, drawing the attention of the people in the courtyard. Ryoga's head snapped up from his book immediately. "I'd say it's been fun but you're a royal jackass." She raised her right hand and waved her fingers at him before shooting up several meters in the air.

"Hey!" Ryoga shouted up at her. "Get back down here!"

"No thanks." Spinning in position, she flapped her wings, and took off towards the tunnel into the cavern. "Wow, that went surprisingly well." She commented, Pepa faded into view flying before her

"Shouldn't you have said goodbye?" Pepa asked and Ranma ignored her.

"How bright can you be?" Ranma asked and immediately had to shield her eyes as Pepa became blindingly bright. "Too much!"

"Sorry." The fairy toned it down to a manageable level.

"Good, you can make yourself useful and lead the way." Ranma felt bad about leaving the slaves to their fates but there wasn't anything she could do to help them.

"O-kay!"

Following Pepa into the tunnel, Ranma stayed back far enough that she wasn't blinded by the light since her eyes had started to get used to the low light. The fairy suddenly swerved to the side to avoid a carriage that was moving back towards the surface. Passing by the front carriage, she noticed that it was the same driver from before.

"What is that?" The Drow demanded angrily, shielding his light sensitive eyes.

"Hey moron!" Ranma pulled down her right eyelid and stuck out her tongue. "Let's see how you like this." She cast a heat enchantment on the bit inside the two horses mouths turning them white hot. Laughing maniacally as the animals panicked she took off to catch up to Pepa.

X x x x x x

"You there, get me a fast mount." Ryoga ordered one of the guards. He would bring back that infuriating tiefling and then he would show her what happened to disobedient slaves. 'Let's see how she likes having her wings cut off.'

"He'll do no such thing." Satsuki's voice called down to him from a terrace above. Ryoga stared up at his love in confusion. "You've lost my slave Ryoga."

"Then why are you stopping me from bringing her back?"

"It's not about your ability to bring her back." Satsuki raised her right hand with the palm facing towards him and flicked it to the side. "That was a test Ryoga and you failed."

"A test?" He asked and found two sets of hands grab on to his arms. "What are you doing?" He demanded at the two Drow female warriors who now had a hold on him.

"I think it's fitting that you take her place." Satsuki remarked coldly, handing a scroll to a waiting Drow at her side. "Have this sent to Ryoga's mother. My response to her unacceptable proposal and notice that her son will not be returning to her."

"You can't do this to me!" He yelled up at her. "I love you."

"Didn't you know? I don't love you." She answered and nodded, the two Drow holding him immediately began to drag him away.

X x x x x x

Skimming along the cliff face to avoid getting caught in the mist, Ranma passed the edge of the surface briefly before cutting her magic, and dropping on to a patch of grass to rest. Pepa who looked no worse for wear from the high speed travel remained floating nearby. Wiping sweat from her brow, she sat down on the ground haphazardly.

"Why did we stop?" Pepa asked.

"Need to think." She glanced around briefly wondering if it was morning or evening before deciding on evening. The Underdark had been surprisingly warm and the cool breeze hitting the sweat on her body made her shiver. Thankfully the sky was clear so she could put more distance between herself and the nearby Drow surface city.

Ranma didn't know if anyone in the city would know about her escape or not. Magical communication over long distances was possible and if the two cities traded often enough then the needed items would be in place. If Satsuki was still playing her part then she would have likely sent something. Scratching at the brand on her back, if she wanted to travel normally then she would need to at least be human and find clothing that hid the mark.

"Which way is back to Nerima?" She asked Pepa.

"Um." The fairy chewed on her lower lip before pointing off in a direction away from the chasm. "That way."

"Alright, we'll go until it's dark then stop for the night." Ranma decided since there was still another hour or two before the sun would be done. By that time she'd barely be able to keep in the air anyways.

X x x x x x

Sitting in front of a large fire, Ranma struggled to remember why this mountain range seemed so familiar. Glowering at Pepa as the fairy continued to fly around aimlessly, curious over every little thing, she wondered what it took to tire the spell construct out. Ranma by comparison had actually expended nearly all of her magic on flight and starting the fire.

"Hey Pepa." She drew the fairy's attention. "Wake me up if anything comes around to investigate the fire."

"Okay." The light fairy nodded.

Lying down on the ground, she decided that she should have stolen a few things while she was making her escape. The last time she had been roughing it like this was when Genma had decided to use their backpacks to distract and escape from an angry hydra. Her eyes were just closing and she was nearly asleep when Pepa cried out.

"There's something here." Pepa informed her happily.

"What is it?" Ranma was back to full alert, looking around the clearing, and wondering if some predator was the culprit.

"See! Right here!" Pepa flew over to point out a small frog.

"Good job." She said flatly and fell back to the ground. 'Stupid fairy.'

"Here's something else!" Pepa came up to her carrying a struggling dragonfly.

"No, no no no, you are not going to be doing that all night. Only tell me if something is a danger to me, not you."

"Oh- okay." Pepa nodded happily.

X x x x x x

"This explains why these mountains are familiar." Ranma came in to land at the entrance to a temple built into a cliff face. The reason why she knew of the entrance to the Underdark became clear. When she and Genma had been traveling, they had gone around it on their way through to the town near here.

"Why is that?" Pepa asked in her overly inquisitive tone.

"If it wasn't for this temple I never would have been a tiefling." She answered, entering into the structure. Surprisingly enough there were sounds of activity from within. Before she could create a light to see by, Pepa helpfully turned up her brightness to illuminate the temple.

Ranma moved slowly, taking in the details of the temple that she had missed the first time, and wondering why she had decided to stop. All she wanted this place to be was a bad memory, not one that she was constantly reminded of. Pepa's light was no longer needed when they entered the main chamber and found that torches placed around the area were lit.

Sitting on a gaudy golden throne was a figure that she never wanted to see again. The God who had changed her and Genma was clapping his hands in delight at a group of sheep that were climbing on each other to form a pyramid in front of him.

"Ooh, he's really big." Pepa commented in awe. "And those fluffy things are so cute!"

"Shut up you idiot." Ranma hissed and gagged the fairy by grabbing her head.

"Oh, it's you." The God's deep voice boomed through the chamber. Ranma dropped Pepa as an invisible force lifted her off the ground and carried her swiftly up to the platform in the center of the room. "Back so soon?"

Ranma took a single step back away from the God but stopped when she saw his eyes narrow. She wanted to run away, to get away from the deity who had tried to, and nearly succeeded in ruining her life. But she was rooted in the spot by the fear that she might do something to offend him again.

"Ah, I suppose you're wondering why I am still here?" The great bearded man said conversationally. "Well the truth is that this is a temple to me up until my stupid followers decided they couldn't stand me being away, and trapped me here." With a flick of his hand, he sent the sheep pyramid flying off in all directions. "Thank you for freeing me by the way, magical prisons are always so uncomfortable." Ranma blinked several times and glanced around nervously wondering why he was being so friendly.

The God narrowed his eyes again. "Someone has been playing with my work."

"Who are you?" Pepa appeared suddenly, zooming up to float close to the deity. The giant man raised an eyebrow at the light fairy.

"Is this yours?" He asked.

"S- s- sort of." Ranma answered hesitantly.

"She stinks of Mico." Waving a large hand, Pepa exploded in a burst of red light. Ranma's eyes widened at the callous nature of the deity. That she had treated the fairy similarly didn't really matter, at least she had a reason not to like the failed banishment spell creature.

Pepa reformed with a pop. "That wasn't very nice!" The fairy declared while glowing brightly. When the God's face twisted into a scowl, Pepa quickly flew away to hide behind Ranma. The God held out a hand towards Ranma and she tensed expecting more magic to be done to her. Pointing a finger downwards and twirling it, the deity picked her up again and spun her around.

"A magical brand." He commented.

"Heh heh, right." Ranma wasn't about to volunteer Jusenkyo if he was more concerned about something else. Trying to turn back around, she found herself unable to move.

"That won't do." He said and the area where she had been branded tingled. "I like the symbol, but those tracking enchantments were just unacceptable."

'Tracking?' Ranma hadn't thought anything about magic being used to put the mark on her skin. 'Was Satsuki planning to bring me back after getting rid of Ryoga?'

"Consider that my thanks for freeing me." The deity turned his attention back to the sheep bowing towards him. "Now leave."

"Th- thanks." Ranma grabbed Pepa and hastily walked across the floor, hoping not to draw anymore of his attention.

"Stupid minions!" The deity's voice boomed and then there was an explosion. Ranma didn't even want to look back and see what had transpired. Pepa, who was looking backwards, put her hands over her eyes which inspired Ranma to move just a bit quicker.

X x x x x x

Ranma half ran and flew down to the town below. Pausing on the road the lead into it, she stopped long enough to notice that she couldn't stop shaking. 'I need cold water.' It may have been a useless gesture but she prayed to any friendly deities that the one she had just been talking to hadn't removed Jusenkyo. Taking several deep breaths, she focused on keeping he body from vibrating apart. When that was accomplished, she used magic to make herself look human, remembering the reaction of the townsfolk the first time.

"I didn't know you could do that." Pepa commented, circling around her.

"Don't tell anybody about it either. Especially don't talk about me being a tiefling like this when we're in town." She instructed and Pepa nodded.

Wincing as small rocks bit into her feet, she actually would have preferred hooves in this situation. Stopping to pull a particularly unpleasantly sharp rock from her flesh, she was surprised to see a man slightly taller than her real body approaching, his hand ready to pull his sword.

"I saw you change demon." He spoke, finally drawing the sword when he was close enough to use it. "Are you a servant of that mad god who lives on the hill?"

Ranma stared impassively at the blade. "I'm just passing through." She answered, wondering if he was some guard.

"If that's true then you won't mind paying the toll." He said suggestively.

Ten seconds later, Ranma had disarmed the man, and beaten him unconscious. Standing over his form, she snorted at the audacity of the thief. "Thanks for the clothes." She snickered as she exchanged her clothing. Examining the sword, she wasn't happy with how it was cared for but she took it anyways. Checking the small pouch containing coins, she was pleased that there was enough within to get some supplies.

"I hope you don't mind wearing a dress." She said as she walked away.

"That wasn't very nice." Pepa told her.

"Meh, he was trying to rob and blackmail me. Maybe he'll learn and stop being such an idiot. Though he does have some nice boots."

"No I mean that dress, he won't look good in it at all. You looked really cute in it."

"Not really what I was thinking." Ranma stared at the fairy. "And fashion advice from a fairy that always wears the same minidress?"

"I can wear other things." Pepa protested, her dress morphing to mimic the school uniform that Nabiki and Akane wore. "See."

"How wonderful." She commented sarcastically, deciding to ignore the fairy until she found some cold water.

X x x x x x

"You idiot!" Ranma yelled as she was run out of town by several villagers. She still appeared human but had been recognized by a merchant.

"I'm sorry!" Pepa whined.

"No you're not, if you were you wouldn't have said my mom was a succubus." Ranma wanted to throttle the fairy but was too busy with running from the small mob. Choosing to head into the woods rather than stay on the road, she knew that most people avoided such areas.

"But they asked!"

"And I told you not to say anything about it!" Ranma slowed her pace since the villagers had given up their chase. When the merchant who had recognized her had asked if she had been there before, Ranma had nearly lied her way into being a first time visitor. Up until Pepa had oh so helpfully explained that Ranma was in fact a tiefling using magic to disguise her appearance. Things had escalated from there.

Jumping up on top of a fallen tree that was at least two meters in diameter, she sat down to take a break. "So hungry." She picked at some loose bark.

"I'm sorry." Pepa floated down to land nearby.

Ranma sighed, wishing she had at least gotten some cold water, or had time to buy some supplies for the night she would have to spend in the wilderness again. She couldn't recall if there was a river that fed the town's water supply or if there were any nearby.

"How about these?" Pepa asked, flying off to point towards some mushrooms.

"Hmm, I dunno." Ranma hopped down from the tree to inspect them. She did like mushrooms but wasn't interested in being poisoned, if she could even be poisoned in this body by such a thing. "You try some."

"Alright." Pepa took a big bite of a mushroom cap. It took her a couple minutes to finally finish chewing and swallowing the last of it.

'Where does it go?' Ranma cocked her head to one side, Pepa was made of light so she was basically see through, but she couldn't see any piece of mushroom swimming around inside the fairy's body. "So do they taste funny?"

"I don't know." Pepa scrunched up her face in thought before hiccupping. "What does taste funny mean?"

"Damn." Ranma had been hoping they would at least make the fairy sick. "Oh well, I'm sure I've eaten worse. Go grab me a bunch of small sticks." She figured the mushrooms would taste better cooked rather than raw.

X x x x x x

The next evening

Genma sat crosslegged on the veranda of the Tendo home watching as Akane practiced her forms in the courtyard. If he wanted to join the schools with Soun then Akane would have been the best choice for Ranma's fiancée. Ranma even got along well with the youngest Tendo, if the casual bickering that the two ended up doing was getting along well.

He was a bit concerned with Ranma's relationship with Kasumi, by now he had expected something from the two of them. Certainly Nodoka's influence wouldn't have hindered Ranma from being openly affectionate. Sure the two spent a lot of time around each other, but so far everything had been very platonic. Which wasn't a bad thing as far as Genma was concerned. He would have to talk to Nodoka and see if she could patch things up with Ranma and get the boy to go a bit faster. Jusenkyo had fixed the little problem with him being descended from an infernal, though with Kasumi as the mother there was a chance the kids would be tieflings. Genma had long since gotten used to that idea and so long as they were reasonably human he wouldn't care.

Not that someone who loved a succubus should be picky.

Frowning, without Ranma back yet from being enslaved again, and with Nodoka off doing whatever it was that succubae did he had little in the way of things to do himself. Soun was good to play games with and had the same amount of free time but he was having a small amount of difficulty reconnecting with his old training partner. He could always offer some tips to Akane, she looked dedicated to the art enough to justify his attention.

"Would you like something to drink, Uncle Saotome?" Kasumi asked sweetly, the tiefling was holding a small tray with a pitcher of some ice tea in it, and several glasses.

"Thank you." He nodded, watching the demure girl take a seat next to him and poor him a glass. She was just handing him the cup when a tiny red figure shot into view from over top the training building to come towards him at high speed.

"Hide me!" Pepa looked around frantically before darting under the folds of Kasumi's dress.

"Oh Pepa! Where are you?" A young girl asked in a very cutesy and ultimately creepy voice.

Having been looking at the fairy, Genma had failed to notice the girl of about six with cute little bat wings sprouting from her back landing in front of them. Dressed in man's brown tunic that was being worn as a dress to her knees, it was tightened at her waist with a belt carrying several fabric pouches, and a sword at her left hip long enough to drag on the ground. Two tiny horns poked out backwards of her short bright red hair from above her temples and she didn't have feet but cloven hooves. Lashing angrily side to side behind her was a spade tipped tail.

"Did you see where Pepa went?" The girl asked.

"Well what's your name sweetie?" Kasumi asked the young girl pleasantly.

"Oh right." The girl looked down at herself. "It's me Ranma."

X x x x x x

Author Notes:

A big influence for the Drow was Drow Tales: Moonless Age.

1 - Koru are basically spiral shapes do a search if you want to see.

2 - She's an Aasimar.

Sorry no Sailor Ranma omake this chapter. Omakes are always appreciated if anyone wants to submit one.


	5. Hello Mother, Hello Father

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

X x x x x x

"Ranma please slow down- you don't want to choke." Kasumi frowned at the young boy who was her fiancé as he continued to stuff his face with food. Once everyone had overcome the shock of Ranma becoming young again, he had changed back to his real gender, and had asked for food. Apparently he had not had much of anything on his escape from the Drow.

"But I'm hungry." He answered with his mouth full of food.

"It's not going to go anywhere." Kasumi chided.

"So why did it take you so long to get back?" Genma asked.

Ranma chewed the food in his mouth and swallowed before answering. He explained that a magical potion, magic stopping shackles, and political machinations were all involved. The boy didn't go into much detail except on how when he was returning he had stumbled across the mushrooms resulting in his lack of age. Ranma had been quite upset over this and had decided to take out his frustration on Pepa who had pointed them out. This resulted in Ranma chasing the fairy all the way back to Nerima in record time.

The Saotome boy had been rational enough to keep about a dozen of the mushrooms which he had dumped on to the table. There was nothing particularly different about them, just plain white mushrooms. Kasumi already planned to cultivate them, if what Ranma had said was true then they were responsible for the change in age, and might be needed in reversing the effect.

"Would you like to take a nap?" Kasumi asked helpfully, noticing that her child aged fiancé looked to be tired.

"No I wouldn't." Ranma replied with a huff.

"Sounds like someone's cranky." Nabiki snickered.

"I'm not cranky!" The little boy complained.

"Ranma you're such a little cutey, what happened to you?" Akane joked leading to Ranma fuming silently. Kasumi thought about chastising her sisters but Ranma looked so adorable when he was pouting like that.

X x x x x x

The next morning

"Wow, these grow really fast." Ranma was sitting on his heels watching Kasumi as she inspected the mushrooms that had started sprouting up already in the garden. He only had on one of his tunics because the rest of his clothing was too large to be useful. So it looked like he was running around in a nightshirt. "But that doesn't help get me back to normal at all." He fought back tears not wanting to be a kid again. Wiping at his eyes, he cursed this childish body that was playing havoc with his emotional control.

"It'll be alright." Kasumi said in a motherly tone.

"You're not the one- who has to grow up all over again." He couldn't stop himself, his mind running down the worst possible scenario, imagining that he could no longer change back as well, and having to grow up a tiefling. Kasumi moved over to kneel next to him and put a comforting arm around his small shoulders.

"It's okay." She whispered soothingly. "We'll go to an herbalist in a bit and then before you know it you'll be yourself again."

"Really?" Ranma asked hopefully, enjoying being held by Kasumi's warmer than normal arms. 'How could I have ever judged Kasumi just because she was a tiefling?' He became depressed again.

"Who's this little one?" Nodoka's voice appeared suddenly from behind them. Startled, he latched on to Kasumi childishly. "Hello little boy." The red haired succubus bent down to smile in his face.

"Lady Nodoka what are you doing here?" Kasumi asked.

"I felt Ranma come back last night so I thought I'd stop by for a visit." The succubus answered and raised a delicate eyebrow. Ranma noticed the recognition in the succubae's eyes and tightened his grip on Kasumi because he didn't know what the demon might do. "Why are you so scared little one?" Nodoka asked. "Is my visage so terrifying?"

"Lady Nodoka, this is Ranma." Kasumi interjected. "He ate a magical mushroom on the way back and it changed his age. I'm growing a patch of them to bring to an herbalist."

"Oh really?" Nodoka smiled and glanced to the small patch of mushrooms. "How- interesting. I suppose the Jusenkyo curse is still afflicting her."

"Does that really matter at the moment?" The tiefling asked.

"Don't you think a child should be with their mother?" The red haired woman held out a hand towards him. "Why don't you come spend some time with mommy?"

"No." Ranma looked away from the demon woman, inadvertently acting as childish as he looked.

"Let's go inside and try to find something that will fit you." Kasumi disengaged from him and took his hand to lead him back into the home, leaving Nodoka standing alone in the garden.

Once Ranma was sure that Nodoka couldn't hear he decided to talk to Kasumi. "I'm not a kid Kasumi."

"Of course not." The tiefling smiled with good natured amusement.

"I'm serious." He assured both her and himself.

"If that's true, why are you still holding my hand?" Kasumi asked. Ranma blinked, looking down from Kasumi's golden eyes to where he was still indeed holding her hand. Pulling it away quickly, he crossed his arms irritably.

X x x x x x

"I thought Kasumi was going to come with me?" Ranma was now wearing some old clothing from Akane. They had an old smell to them from being in storage for so long but fit fairly well. The youngest Tendo had always been a masculine girl, wearing pants, and choosing a physical art. So he didn't feel all that weird in her brown pants and red tunic. Even if the tunic was a bit more girly than what he would wear.

"Trust me, its best that Kasumi isn't anywhere around Doctor Tofu." Akane informed him. This Doctor Tofu was the one who loaned Kasumi the books on biology and other things and he seemed to have his hands in everything.

"Why?" He asked slowly and glancing around nervously as the crowd started to thicken around them. Feeling like he was surrounded by giants, he moved slightly closer to Akane. Just so he wouldn't have people bumping into him.

"Because he has an extreme crush on Kasumi and goes insane when she's around him." The long haired girl said with a sigh. "Don't even mention her."

'Hmm.' He thought the way she had said it was weird but ignored it. Ranma wasn't happy to learn that another man had such an attraction to his fiancée. Not that he was planning on going through with the engagement but it was the principle of the thing.

Tofu had a one story clinic on the corner over an intersection on the way to Furinkan. From what Ranma knew he wasn't a straight up healer, focusing on areas closely related subject. Entering into the building, he noticed how clean everything was. Most likely it was due to some enchantment that was cleaning everything to an extreme level.

"Doctor Tofu, are you in?" Akane called as she removed her shoes at the entrance. Ranma did the same with his borrowed sandals and looked around the small waiting room.

"Hello Akane." A pleasant looking man came out from the next room over. He had large round glasses on and wore simple gray clothing. "How are you today?"

"I'm good Doctor." The youngest Tendo answered. "It's not me though." Akane jerked her head towards him.

"And what seems to be the problem little man?" Tofu asked him as though he was a little child.

"The problem is that I'm supposed to be sixteen." Ranma answered, surprising the man with his tone.

"Well this appears to be the worst case of delayed development I've ever seen." The doctor joked. "So I'm not sure if I can do anything now."

Akane rolled her eyes. "What he means to say is that up until a couple days ago he was sixteen. Then he ate a mushroom and it did this." She held out a small pouch containing several of the mushrooms.

"I can't say that I've ever encountered such an item." The man adjusted his glasses before taking the pouch. "I'll need to run some component tests and maybe have a friend inspect any magic that it may contain. Where did you find them?"

"Outside of Waiima. But how much?" Ranma asked, not believing that he would do this for free.

"No charge." Tofu looked into the pouch and shook the contents. "I'm sure the medicinal uses of this kind of thing are well worth the effort."

"Oh- thanks." He hadn't considered that the mushrooms might have some other usage.

"It'll probably take me a day or two before I know anything."

"Thank you Doctor." Akane said gratefully.

"Thanks." Ranma said again, feeling relieved that he had found someone who might be able to help him. "Um- you don't happen to know anything about curses do you? Not this one." He clarified.

"Not very much I'm afraid and certainly not without more information."

"Ever heard of Jusenkyo?"

"Can't say I have."

"Ah- alright, never mind then."

X x x x x x

'How did this happen?' Ranma asked himself while being surrounded by a small group of boys several years older than he was now. 'Oh yea.' He recalled that he had stopped one of them from pickpocketing some guy. So now he was surrounded by eight boys while trying to figure out if his child body kept all of his skills or not. He was actually a little angry with himself for getting into this position, having panicked when he found himself first surrounded, he fled into an alley, and was now cornered.

"So what do you think we should do with him?" A boy who was slightly bigger than the rest asked and rubbed at a jagged scar running down his left check.

"You can run away and maybe I won't hurt you." Ranma boasted, deciding that a good fight was just what he needed. Going on the initiative, he landed a kick to the large scarred boy's stomach, and before he could follow it up with anything he was grabbed a second and a third. "Lemme go!" Struggling as the pair held him down, he was punched in the face.

Dizzy from the blow, he kicked out at his attacker, and then planted his feet to push backwards against the ones holding him. Hitting something solid, he got a hand free when one of the boys holding him grabbed him by the neck. Elbowing that boy, the grip around his neck loosened briefly before he clamped down. The rest of the group finally joined in and he became the center of attention for wildly swung fists and feet. This lasted a good ten seconds before a warm wet cascade of water descended on them from above.

"Knock it off you little brats!" A harsh female voice called down to them. "Get out of the alley!"

"You bitch!" One of the boys called up at the woman.

Ranma winced from her wings being bunched up in her clothing. 'What did she dump on me?' She thought, catching the pungent scent of the liquid. 'She dumped her chamber pot on me!' Ranma realized in horror.

"You're going to get it for this too!" One of the boys turned back to her and paused. The two holding her quickly released her when they noticed that she was no longer a young boy but a young girl tiefling.

"He's some kind of freak." Another pointed at her.

"Let's get it." A skinny one snarled.

"You're in for it now." She declared, kicking off her now useless shoes, and scrambling to her feet. "I'll use my magic to turn you into dust!" Making a grand wave of both hands, she called forth a ball of light. She would scare these jerks off with a light spell, and then find the first body of water to clean off.

"Hold it right there!" A commanding male voice demanded while grabbing one of the boys. Standing in a simple set of mail armor was one of the city guards.

"It's a guard!" The scar faced boy yelled and all but the one being held suddenly scrambled off in random directions to avoid the guard's other hand as he attempted to capture another.

"Don't worry, we'll be getting your friends soon enough." The guard told the struggling boy in his grasp.

"Thank you so much!" Nodoka gushed as she ran up to check on Ranma.

"No need to thank me Ma'am, I need to thank you for helping me get this one, this gang has been a thorn in our side for some time." The guard smiled stupidly and Ranma figured that he was probably caught in some charm spell from Nodoka.

"Oh look at you, you're filthy." Nodoka fretted with her hands but didn't make any attempt to paw at her.

"Thanks again Ma'am." The guard picked the struggling boy up off the ground and hauled him off.

"How did you find me like that?" Ranma quickly moved away from Nodoka. Eying the succubus suspiciously, she felt that something about this whole situation was very off.

"Would you rather have been beaten by a bunch of humans?" The red head asked as if Ranma was stupid and grabbed her by the wrist. "Come on, we need to get you cleaned up."

"I don't want to go anywhere with you." She tried to pull away but found herself unable to break Nodoka's grip.

"Don't worry, mother is here dear." Nodoka said blissfully and dragged her along without a care.

"Crap." Ranma continued to drag her feet, her hooves helping little on the stone walkways, and planning to get away from her mother as faster as possible.

'Oh wait, I can fly.' Sure her wings were currently bound up by her tunic, but surely flying would give her the ability to break Nodoka's hold. Since they weren't really necessary for flight, she rapidly floated up off the ground, and using as much force as she could to try and break the succubae's grip on her wrist.

"Oh please, you're making a scene." Nodoka casually tugged her hard enough to bring her down to the ground and tightened her grip. "Calm down and let momma get you cleaned up and then you can help me make some food."

"Did you forget that I want nothing to do with you?" Ranma snarled.

"So you remember when you were older?" The succubus looked down at her curiously.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Well you are a small child now." The red head shrugged. "Either way you still need to get cleaned up." She said enthusiastically.

X x x x x x

"You're an old hag." Ranma told Nodoka, the succubus using some kind of overly fragranced shampoo to scrub at her hair. She had been dragged to her mother's apartment where the demon had setup a metal wash basin that Ranma fit into easily, and filled it with hot water. The clothes she had been wearing had been quickly washed with enchanted water and were drying on a line setup outside a window.

"Nonsense, I'm not even middle aged." Nodoka continued to hum happily to herself. "Oh yes, it is so much more pleasant to use soaps than just magic."

"No one will ever love you." She continued to try and insult the succubus.

"Your father did and still does. Don't pout so much, your face will stay like that. Although you do look so dreadfully cute when you do."

"You- you." Ranma struggled to find more insults. She had been at this for several minutes now without success. Maybe if Nodoka was attempting something but failed she could come up with better insults but to just do it on the spot without material to work with was not one of her strong points. "You're bad at sex." She finally decided upon and could feel the succubae's hands stiffen briefly. "That's right, you're- bad- at- sex." She added, emphasizing each word.

"You're a virgin, so your opinion wouldn't really matter now, would it?" Nodoka quickly countered her insult. "Now close your eyes so you don't get soap in them." Using a large cup with a handle, the demon dumped water over her head.

"I hate you- why won't you just leave me alone?" She gave up for the moment on making Nodoka angry, hoping that this humiliation would end soon. The only consolation was that it was not out in public.

"I don't hate you. You're my child and I love you."

Since Nodoka was behind her she couldn't be charmed but the succubus did sound sincere. "You don't love me." Ranma turned around to try and stare down her mother. "You love me as a girl. You might even get some kick out of me being a tiefling, but you don't love me. So stop saying it."

"I love the child I've come to know." Reaching out with a hand, Nodoka brushed some of Ranma's wet bangs to the side. "Is it my fault that I've never known you as a man?"

"I am a man, I'm cursed to be like this." She corrected and conceded some of Nodoka's point. Without Jusenkyo, her mother would have never met her as a man. Her eyes narrowed as she realized just how easy it would have been to manipulate her if she hadn't been able to change back. Without that conflict she might never been able to break free of Nodoka's charm. "Worst of all, worse than you wanting me to be a girl- you used magic to try and make me into what you want."

"Oh sweetie, all parents do that in one way or another." The red haired woman put a hand on her shoulder.

Batting the woman's hand away, she gave an ultimatum, staring into the succubae's eyes and daring her to object. "I'm clean, let me out of those tub so I can get dressed, and leave."

"If- that is what you- really want." Nodoka said slowly and even halting more than once. "I will walk you back to the Tendo's and I will leave you alone."

"Alright." Ranma didn't smile at her victory.

X x x x x x

"Pepa, could you go find Ranma? It's almost dinner time." Kasumi asked the fairy as she was preparing the meat for tonight's meal. Akane had returned from Doctor Tofu's earlier without the cursed boy. She had said that Ranma had run off to be alone for a while. Kasumi wasn't too sure about letting a small child like that out alone in the city, but Ranma wasn't really a child so she had tried not to fret too much.

"Okay." The sprite nodded and started to spin in a circle slowly to try and locate Ranma. "Um, she's almost at the door."

"That's convenient." She smiled, hearing the outer door open then close, followed by the clacking of what only could be Ranma's hooves on the hardwood floor. 'Why is Ranma a girl?' Into the kitchen came Ranma in tiefling form, she had serious look on her face, and the reason for that appeared behind her in the form of Nodoka. "Lady Nodoka, what a pleasant surprise." She greeted with false enthusiasm. "Were you planning to- stay for dinner?"

"No." The succubus answered very slowly. "I am merely here to make sure Ranma did not get into any more trouble."

"No doubt already having something devious in mind." Pepa nodded to herself and was ignored by Kasumi and everyone else.

"Oh- thank you." She wondered what had transpired because normally the demon was hard to get rid of. Looking back and forth between mother and child, she caught the despondent look on Nodoka's face just as she excused herself to leave. Ranma paid no attention to her, using the water pump to get enough water to change back into a boy.

Looking curiously at her de-aged fiancé, she caught a very nice scent in the air. "You smell nice." She commented. Normally Ranma simply smelled clean but now he had the strong smell of flowers. Glancing back at the door that Nodoka had left through, she assumed that the demon had something to do with it.

"I smell like someone hit me in the face with a brick made of some wretched plant that should only be found on the lowest and most horrific of infernal planes!" The young boy shouted out the doorway.

'I can't help but feel that wasn't a comment about some fragrance.' Kneeling down she put a hand on Ranma's back. "Why don't you go tell everyone that dinner will be ready soon?"

"Alright." Ranma looked away from her with a pout.

X x x x x x

It was later in the evening that Kasumi found her father and Genma watching Ranma as he practice the fighting arts outside. The two fathers would occasionally make a comment and Ranma would respond with some disrespectful comment. The sun was nearly beyond the horizon and the sky was a deep red. All in all it was a pleasant evening that she wished could last longer.

"You have never been this sloppy in your life boy." Genma called to his son. "Well it's good you have a whole lifetime to train again." Ranma ignored his father to run through a rapid series of punches and kicks.

Kasumi honestly couldn't see how Ranma was being all that bad. Then again she had never been interested in any physical art. That wasn't exactly true though, when she was younger she had been curious, but her father had always been too protective. Probably just desiring something she couldn't have.

"He could use some more training. While his mind is still young and malleable." Soun rubbed at his mustache. "There was a rather nasty group of kobolds trying to make a mine outside of town. We could have him run through there. No one wants to go down there because the last one who tried lost an arm from a trap."

"No, no good, the boy is good with traps." Genma crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "How's the wolf population around here?"

"No wolves." Soun shook his head.

"Elementals?"

"There was a water elemental that was at a nearby lake, but I don't think it's still there."

"This place is too safe to do any kind of proper training." Genma sighed.

"Too true, not like what we went through."

"Kids these days are spoiled."

Ranma voiced his opinion on the matter by throwing a stone tile that struck Genma in the face and flattened him. "Would you two shut up?" The boy yelled and stomped off.

'I'm glad I never got involved in the physical arts.' She shook her head.

X x x x x x

Two days later

Ranma squirmed ineffectually on his stomach as Genma sat on his back, pinning him to the ground. "Get off me you fat idiot!" He yelled at his father.

"Why? You're comfy." Genma continued to sit on him while munching on a snack that had been stolen from him.

"I'll get you for this! I'll make sure you pay!" He clawed at the ground without effect.

"You better get better then." His father patted him on the head.

Growling to himself he dropped his head to the grass to wait for this humiliation to end. As soon as he was back to his real age, Genma would suffer. How to do that was the big question. There's no way he could just sit on Genma and steal food from him. A cruel thought entered his mind. Thanks to Kasumi's cultivation of the mushrooms that had made him a child, he had a ready to supply to trick Genma into eating.

'Vengeance will be mine.' He thought with an evil chuckle that earned him a hit on the back of the head. "What was that for?" He demanded angrily.

"Don't laugh like that."

"I think you are misinterpreting how to babysit Genma." Nodoka's lilting voice made him grind his teeth.

"What brings you here?" Genma asked, sounding far too happy to see the succubus.

"Why I have a visitor coming today." The red head smiled happily. "I was going to do the summon outside of town but there's plenty of room here."

"Summon?" He asked at the same time as Genma.

"Summon what?" Genma added.

"That would ruin the surprise." Nodoka winked at Genma who Ranma caught smile stupidly.

"Idiot." He grumbled, propping his head up with a hand. Ranma was just settling in when he was shocked by Soun slamming down his shogi board in front of Genma. "What are you doing?" Ranma asked, having missed the approach of the Tendo patriarch.

"I've never seen a summoning before." The mustached man answered while rapidly setting up the pieces.

"And do you have to do that right now?" He looked between Genma and Soun.

"It's a good place for you boy." Genma patted him on the head and then made a move on the shogi board.

"I hate you all." He sighed and let his head drop to the grass.

He could do nothing but wait as Nodoka went through the process of drawing the summoning circle. Ranma couldn't see it because she was doing it up on the slightly raised platform of the practice area, but he could guess it was a demon summoning circle. 'Great, more succubae.' He reasoned.

"What's going on out here?" Akane arrived about halfway through.

"She's summoning a demon." Ranma answered.

"Oh." Akane shrugged and went back into the home, appearing again with something to drink, and with her sisters in tow.

"Am I the only one who thinks letting her summon something is a bad idea?" Ranma asked, disgusted over the casual disregard of what Nodoka was doing. Who knew who or what she might be summoning?

"I don't think your mother would do anything dangerous." Kasumi was able to get Genma off of him and dragged him over like a child to sit with her two sisters.

"Yea right." He crossed his arms irritably while visually inspecting the circles within circles and other magical runes that Nodoka was now finishing. Ranma was impressed that she had been able to create it all from memory. It was about two meters in diameter and she had created it with white chalk.

"Finished." Nodoka announced, dropping the chalk to the side without a care, and wiping the residue off her hands. Holding out her right hand with her palm facing the circle, the succubus closed her eyes. **"Come forth!"** She called out, the summoning circle was consumed in a burst of black flames that rose several meters in the air that vanished instantly, and a figure appeared in its place with a suitcase to the side.

Facing them was a girl about fourteen years old with a slim athletic build wearing a tight golden dress with embroidered patterns along the hem. Her hair was a dark red that was nearly black and was tied up in a fox tail. Waving behind her was a reddish tail with a spade tip and stretching briefly were medium sized red bat wings. Her eyes were solid black orbs and curving around her head from her forehead just above her eyes were two half circle horns. Blinking, she glanced around at everyone before turning around towards Nodoka.

"Mom!" The girl cried out happily and dropped her suitcase to envelope Nodoka in a hug.

"Mom?" Ranma jumped up. 'Since when does she have a daughter?'

"Don't mind him." Nodoka waved a hand dismissively, kissing the girl on the cheek before holding her at arm's length. "Look at you, you're becoming so beautiful!" The succubus gushed and pulled her back in for another hug.

"Nodoka- dear, who is this?" Genma asked.

"Michiko." Nodoka addressed the girl before pointing to Genma. "This is your father."

"Him?" The girl asked, clearly unhappy with the idea. "But look at him."

"Now now, back then he was very handsome." Nodoka explained.

"Why am I just learning about this now?" Genma crossed his arms.

"I was very upset with you up until recently." Nodoka pointed out.

"And why didn't I?" Ranma snapped, adding yet another reason to be angry with his mother. He didn't remember a single instance where Nodoka had ever mentioned him having a sister.

Nodoka didn't immediately answer, at first ignoring him, but finally she did. "I was waiting for the right moment. Didn't you ever find it odd how I would call you my first child?"

"Kind of." He bit his tongue.

"Mom, I'm pretty sure I would have to be the first." The dark haired tiefling commented, padding over to him on bare human feet, and crouching down to look him in the eye. "Unless he's just a runt."

"I ate some age changing mushrooms." He glowered at the girl.

"Oh, well hello then." She cocked her head to one side. "What's your name? I'm Michiko."

"Ranma." He answered, wondering how Nodoka had raised his younger sister. The tiefling moved her black eyes away from him to give Kasumi a once over.

"Daughter, get your things so we can go to my home." Nodoka interrupted him before he could start asking questions. The succubus rapidly took off towards the front gate without anything further.

"Alright." The tiefling grabbed her suitcase and followed after Nodoka. "Nice meeting you."

"Well that was interesting." Nabiki remarked.

Watching the two vanish through the gate, Ranma narrowed his eyes. 'Whatever she's planning, I'm not going to let her get away with it.'

X x x x x x

'What is she planning?' Ranma pursed his lips, clinging to the side of the building, and looking in on Nodoka and Michiko as the two sat at the kitchen table talking. He was at the back of the apartment in the alley so he didn't attract attention. 'I can't hear.' Glancing at the other window that had a small balcony, that window wasn't open either. Shifting his hand and footholds, he put his ear up to the glass, hoping the curtain over the corner would hide him. The action didn't help, only made the muffled voices louder, and still didn't let him hear what they were saying.

'What now?' He asked himself a moment before someone knocked on the window. "Ack!" Losing his grip, he plummeted to the alley floor, bouncing off a wooden trash bin before coming to a rest on the stone.

"Did you wish to come in?" Nodoka asked with amusement, sticking her head out of the window to look down at him.

"Fine." He looked away from her and got to his feet. With a single jump, he cleared the distance up to the window and latched onto the siding around it. Nodoka moved aside and he swung in.

"Agile little thing isn't he?" Michiko smiled from her place at the table and sipped some tea.

"And here I thought you wanted nothing to do with me?" Nodoka closed the window again and spun around to lean against the sink counter.

"That'd be a problem if I was here to see you." He answered, moving over to the table. "Michiko, you can't trust her."

"Is this a joke?" The tiefling raised her left eyebrow.

"She lied and charmed me." Ranma didn't know how he could explain all that transpired in a few simple words or how he could make his point clear enough.

"You're a male, what do you expect?" Michiko shrugged away his statement.

Ranma's jaw dropped and he took a step away from the tiefling right into Nodoka. Her hands dropped down to hold on to his shoulders. "I can get hot water if you wish to show her?" The succubae asked him in soft voice.

He didn't immediately move away or answer. Ranma wanted to show Michiko what he turned into, the form that Nodoka had charmed, so that she might be angry as well. But that shouldn't change anything. What Nodoka had done was wrong, no matter what gender he was. "No." Brushing her hands away, he made his way towards the door to leave. "It shouldn't matter."

X x x x x x

'Ranma missed dinner.' Kasumi was finished cleaning up in the kitchen and was going to go check on the garden since she had neglected it earlier. The summoning that Nodoka had done had taken up most of her thoughts for the rest of the day. She had not known that tieflings could be summoned. It brought up uncomfortable questions about how much of a tiefling was demonic and how much was human.

Slipping on her gardening shoes, she headed outside at a leisurely pace. A month, maybe two if they were lucky before it would be too cold to enjoy nights like this. Frowning, she kept her tail up off the ground to avoid getting it anymore dirty than it usually did. She didn't mind the extra appendage that much, but tracking dirt around was one of the things that she most definitely did not like. Humming to herself, she rounded the corner of her home, and slowed down even further.

"Ranma?" She asked, looking at the boy as he sat next to the small patch of age changing mushrooms hugging his knees. "What's wrong?" Kneeling down next to him, he pulled his legs tighter to his chest. "Aren't you excited to find out you have a sister?"

"I was- kind of." He finally answered, his voice strained.

"Why aren't you now?"

"They're the same." Ranma sniffled and wiped at his nose with his sleeve. "And nobody believes me about her."

"About your mother." Kasumi guessed. Ever since Nodoka had been introduced to them, Ranma had been almost hostile to the succubus without much in the way of an explanation. She had been discrete in trying to get information on the subject but Ranma was good at not giving answers. "Maybe if you said what she did?"

"She charmed me." Ranma said softly.

Kasumi sat silently listening to Ranma's uneven breathing. "What did she try to get you to do?"

"Try? She did." Ranma gave a brief laugh devoid of any humor. "I did whatever she wanted. I was a puppet on a string."

"But that means."

"Yea." Ranma nodded. "Some part of me wanted to do what she asked." As soon as he was finished, Ranma buried his face in his legs.

"It's okay." She gently rubbed his back. Kasumi found it hard at the moment to see the grown up that Ranma was, seeing only the small child that he was at the moment. "I'm sure that it was just you wanting to be with your mother."

"There's more." His voice was muffled by his pants but she heard him. "I can charm people now." Ranma picked his head up to stare at her with red eyes. "I'm becoming a demon."

"No you're not." She shook her head. "Part of being a tiefling is that there are things you can do that aren't human. If you have your curse for long enough, I'm sure you'll find that the things you see as big now, really aren't."

"Can you look human?" He asked suddenly. "Dragons can, you're part dragon, can't you look human?"

"No." She answered, having desired that for a long time.

"I can." Ranma looked away from her to stare forward. "A day, that's all it took me to learn how to do it. It was like flying, I could just do it when I thought the right thing."

Kasumi felt such an overwhelming amount of jealousy at this that around her the grass withered and died. Reigning in her emotions, she was too late to stop Ranma from noticing her reaction. The young boy hesitantly touched a withered blade of grass that disintegrated from his touch. "I- don't know what to say."

"I just want to be the way I was." Ranma went back to burying his face in his legs.

Kasumi was still stunned from Ranma's recent confessions and she had nothing to say. 'Mother, I wish you were here now. I'm not cut out to do this kind of thing.' Putting an arm around Ranma's small shoulders, she wrapped her tail around him. Ranma was still her fiancé and it was good that he would confide in her. She hoped that if a time ever came, that he would be strong for her.

X x x x x x

Michiko was curious, intensely curious, and it was made worse by her mother's lack of explanation. Knowing her mother, this was the obvious intent. Her older but currently younger brother had something interesting to him, enough to actually convince a succubus to care for him. 'Now where was that place?' Flying high above Nerima, she didn't remember the way back to that home all that well.

Finding one that looked similar, she dropped down to land next to the building. "Hmm." Glancing around, the architecture seemed similar but that was about it. "Well there can't be too many houses like this around here." The house was somewhere in the city and few if any were going to be as big as what she remembered.

A nearby doorway burst open as a boy several years her senior exited it. "Please give a reason for your presence tiefling." He asked, his left hand resting on a wooden sword hilt attached to his left hip.

'It looks like there are some attractive humans here.' She was a little young but she may have to stick around if there were more eye candy like this around. "I was looking for the Tendo's." She answered.

"This is disturbing news. Has their home become a den for the infernal?" He asked.

"I don't believe so." She stared at the boy in confusion. "I just need to go talk to my brother."

"You are kin to Ranma Saotome?"

'I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing that this guy knows him.' His stance was aggressive and there was a lot of divine magic rolling off of him. "I just found out about it today."

"I see." The elder teen nodded to himself. "And have you always been a tiefling?"

"Yes." She answered slowly, confused over such a question. "Could you maybe point me in the right direction and I'll be going?" Michiko was getting some strange vibes from the teen and would much rather be on her way.

"I can do more than that, I can escort you there." The teen moved quickly and before she could react had put a hand around her shoulders.

'How forward of him.' She blinked several times. "Um- thank you."

"No need to thank me. A cleric of Mico must always be willing to help those in need. But how rude of me, I haven't introduced myself, I am Tatewaki Kuno."

"It's- nice to meet you. My name is Michiko." Gently grabbed his hand between two fingers, she pulled it off her shoulder. This guy was attractive, but he was a cleric to a god, and she felt dirty just being around him.

X x x x x x

"This sucks!" Michiko twisted out of the way of another beam of light.

"Hold still and let me send you back to your infernal realm demon!" Kuno yelled up at her.

"Why did I say I was summoned?" She groaned and gained more height to make avoiding his magical attacks easier. It had been such an innocent question on when she had arrived in town and she had made the mistake of saying she had been summoned by her mother earlier. Diving suddenly, she aimed for a set of buildings that would block her off from the cleric. Skimming along the rooftops, she twisted side to side in order to avoid chimneys and other obstructions.

Flaring her wings, she came to a stop on a slanted roof. "Phew." Wiping a small amount of sweat from her eyebrows, she couldn't believe how dangerous the mortal plane could be. And this was supposed to be a rather tolerant city as well. "Well better keep going." Starting to fly again, she kept herself hidden to avoid being harassed by that cleric anymore.

"Woah, what's what?" Somewhere in front of her, a magical presence just spiked in power. It was certainly infernal in origin and as soon as it appeared it leveled off to a much more normal, if still very powerful level of power. There was even something familiar about it that she couldn't put her finger on.

Her curiosity being piqued once again, she hurried herself to the location of the other infernal. When she was closer she noticed that the powerful infernal was actually at the Tendo home. 'Could it be that cute dragon tiefling?' She asked herself while circling behind the home before setting down on a wooden platform next to a large bath.

"Hey I'm sorry to interrupt." She stopped when she saw the small figure that was looking at her from the water. "Well aren't you cute." She was crouching at the side of the bath in an instant. "Are you the one who's so strong?" She asked the red haired and blue eyed tiefling in a cutesy voice.

"Why are you here?" The little girl asked, looking at her with distrust.

"I came here to find my brother, but what's your name?" Her brother was interesting but this little girl was just as much so. The girl's blue eyes bore into her in a strangely adult way. She also seemed to know her as well, but Michiko could swear she had never met her before. "My name is Michiko." She decided to make the first introduction.

"Your brother isn't here right now and he doesn't want to see you, so you should go back where you came from." The red head told her seriously.

"Well that's not very nice." Pouting, her tail swished back and forth agitatedly. She was just trying to be nice to the girl, why was she being so angry? "Little girls shouldn't be so rude; I'm going to have to tell your mother."

"Like she even cares, she has you to play with now." The young girl snorted.

"What was that?" She furrowed her brow in confusion. It seemed like the girl was part succubus but her mother shouldn't have any other children.

"I want you- to go away." The girl narrowed her eyes at her and Michiko felt the magical presence from the girl increase.

'Did someone actually teach a little girl like this an attack spell?' She edged away slightly. Being weak magically, she did not want to get vaporized by some little girl who threw a tantrum. Then again, why would someone let a small child like this take a bath in such a large area alone? "It's alright, no need to get worked up. I'll leave you to your bath."

X x x x x x

Moving quickly through the home, Ranma didn't even bother to grab cold water from the spring, wanting to make sure Michiko had left. The kitchen was empty, so she moved on to the living room, and was unhappy to find Akane and Kasumi talking to Michiko. Genma was also sitting at the table but Ranma recognized the posture to be the one he took when he was observing.

"So you haven't spent much time on this plane?" Akane asked the tiefling.

"No, Mom taught me about your culture here but I've never stayed here more than a month at a time." Michiko answered. "Hello again." The girl greeted her. "Brother." She added with amusement.

Ranma frowned but walked over to sit at the table across from her sister. "Why did you want to see me?" Who let drop the information about the curse she didn't know, it wasn't really important anyways. Nodoka would have told eventually. Ranma didn't think Michiko had known before talking to the Tendo's with how she had acted in the bath. "I'm just a guy after all."

"It certainly seems like it." Michiko smiled in a very amused way.

"Ranma, what's that supposed to mean?" Akane drew his attention.

"Succubae don't care about men. Nodoka only wants me when I'm like this." She wasn't going to bring up the things that she had with Kasumi earlier, but this certainly didn't reflect well on Nodoka. "I tried to talk to her earlier." Ranma pointed at Michiko. "And she couldn't care less because I'm not a girl."

This soured the people around the table to Michiko rather quickly. Akane and Genma frowned while Kasumi lost her usual smile to be replaced by a neutral face. Ranma couldn't help but smile at being able to finally get some kind of support about this.

"Boy, she is right about that." Genma finally spoke up. "It doesn't excuse her actions though."

"Your damn right it doesn't." Ranma crossed her arms.

Michiko glanced around the room in concern. "I'm sorry, I don't see what's wrong with this."

"Michiko- how would you feel if you were treated poorly for being a tiefling?" Kasumi asked.

"As a tiefling I am lesser being." Michiko answered without hesitation. "I would feel bad, but it's what I am."

X x x x x x

The frown on Genma's face increased. He had raised Ranma to be confident, to have pride, to be self-assured. After being changed by that God this had taken a blow, but Ranma had and seemed to be adapting well up until Nodoka's intrusion back into their lives. Having had no hand in raising his daughter, or even knowing about her, he had been wondering what kind of life she had led.

"Daughter, does Nodoka mistreat you?" He asked. Ranma wouldn't tell him what Nodoka had done and even though he was concerned about that, there was nothing he could do.

"Mistreat me?" Michiko asked, offended at the notion. "I have never been mistreated by anyone in my family."

"Still, how would you like to stay with Ranma and me for a while?" He was speaking for Soun since it was his house. But this was his child and next time he saw Nodoka he would be having a long talk with her.

"I came here to see my mom." The black eyed girl looked thoughtfully at Ranma. "But I would like to get to know my- brother."

Genma looked away from the dark haired girl to his currently female son. Like Nodoka, Michiko was ignoring him. He had not missed how little attention his daughter had paid Ranma while he was male but now her interest was plainly obvious. 'I wonder if it's even possible to fix such an attitude.' Ranma did not exhibit that succubae trait as a tiefling so it may be possible.

"Boy, I need to talk to you." Grabbing Ranma by a wing, he dragged the tiefling out of the room.

"What is it?" Ranma roughly pulled the wing from his hand before holding it delicately as if Genma had injured it.

"Will you help your sister? To be more human?" He asked.

"She seems happy enough being what she is." Ranma answered his question with a dismissive snort.

"Your mother won't like it." He said, knowing that with Ranma's current feelings towards Nodoka, he would take the bait.

"Fine."

X x x x x x

"If you want my honest opinion, I think you should stay like this."

"And why is that?" Ranma asked sarcastically, opening the door to her room. She was trying to be nice to her younger sister. It wasn't her fault that she had been raised by Nodoka and other succubae. Michiko didn't have any chance to get away from Nodoka's way of thinking.

"You're a girl for one."

"That's the least of my concern." She would have preferred turning into a girl infinitely more than a tiefling. Entering into the room, she let the other tiefling look around.

Michiko finished with her visual inspection to turn back to her. "You look a lot like mom so I bet you're really pretty when you're your real age."

"You don't have any clothing with you." Ranma chose to ignore the comment on appearances, averting her eyes from her sister. She had heard that kind of statement so many times from Nodoka that it was almost ingrained in her skull. "You'll have to get it from her place."

"Uh heh heh." I don't really know the way back." The dark haired tiefling laughed nervously.

Sighing, Ranma waved a hand for Michiko to follow her. "I'll take you there."

"So how long have you been a tiefling?" Michiko asked.

"Long enough." Ranma answered, later she may tell her sister either the Jusenkyo or true story.

"Oh come on, don't be like that. I just want to know more about you."

"Maybe later." She exited the front door with Michiko in tow. Perhaps she was being unfair, if she was going to help the girl to get away from Nodoka then she would need to show some trust. Spreading her wings, she took off up into the sky, followed by Michiko who kept pace easily.

"You're not too bad." Michiko circled around her in a corkscrew before coming to a stop to Ranma's left. "But you're too stiff and need to relax."

Ranma conceded that to Michiko. Ever since being changed by the God, flying had been wonderful stress outlet. But ever since finding out the truth about her mother, she hadn't gone out once. Closing her eyes and trusting in her magic to keep her aloft, she relaxed completely. Adjusting to the wind conditions, she let her worries and cares just wash away. Angling to the right then to the left, she was buffeted by a sudden gust of wind from the front that slowed her forward momentum to a crawl.

Finally opening her eyes, she checked her position, and found that she had passed Nodoka's apartment. Cutting all the magic to her wings, she dropped downward like a rock, and at the last moment pulled up to skim along the rooftops. Out of the corner of her eye she caught Michiko easily following her. The other tiefling had a knowing smile on her face.

"What?" Ranma asked while gaining some height to avoid any obstructions.

"I just liked it when you didn't have that angry scowl on your face." Michiko smiled at her.

"We're here." She quickly looked away from her sister as she landed on the small balcony on one side of the building. Even though she was a child, it was too small for both of them to be on at once so she opened up the door, and entered into the apartment.

In her true form, Nodoka was laying on her side on her bed reading a book spread out on the sheets. Hovering above her was a small ball of magical light while no other lights were on in the apartment. Looking up from reading, the succubus smiled at Michiko and ignored her for the most part.

"I was wondering when you would come back." Nodoka slid off the bed to quickly move over and embrace Michiko. "Did you have fun at the Tendo's?"

"Uh huh." Michiko nodded happily. "Ranma even invited me to stay there for a while."

"Stay there?" Nodoka asked in confusion. "You don't want to stay here with me?"

"It's not for the whole time I'll be on this plane." The dark haired tiefling grabbed Ranma before she could protest and picked her up to be held like a child. "My big sister asked me to, how could I resist this face?"

Ranma squirmed as Michiko pinched at her cheek but didn't voice a protest. She had caught that Michiko was actually misleading Nodoka. Genma had been the one to ask the girl to stay at the Tendo's. Was the tiefling rationalizing Genma away as inconsequential or was she lying so Nodoka would like the idea?

"Ranma asked you?" The succubus stared at her incredulously.

"You should get your stuff." Ranma suggested while finally freeing herself from Michiko's grasp, not wanting to be here longer than needed.

"I don't know if I like this." Nodoka followed Michiko as the girl quickly found her suitcase. "This is so sudden."

"It's not like you won't see me and I'll visit a lot."

"I guess it's alright but I really would have liked if you had asked me first." The red haired succubus looked at Ranma suspiciously.

Making a big show of yawning, Ranma stretched her arms and wings out. "I'd like to get back, I'm really tired."

"Right, I bet it's past your bed time." Michiko teased.

"I don't have a bed time." She continued the act by rubbing at her eyes.

"We better get going." Michiko quickly hugged Nodoka. "Don't worry I'll come by and see you tomorrow."

"Be here for lunch, I'm going to make something special." Nodoka glanced at her irritably.

"Okay I will." The black haired girl nodded. "Bye mom."

"Yes, bye mother." Ranma told Nodoka while waving one of her small hands to the woman, the malicious smirk on her face caused Nodoka to stiffen slightly.

X x x x x x

"Such a strange looking bear." Michiko sat on her left hip with her legs tucked off to the right.

#Daughter I'm trying to sleep# The sign Genma had produced was flipped over. #Stop making comments#

"Very odd." Shrugging, she went on to inspecting the bedding that she was supposed to sleep on. Patting the top of it with her tail, she found that it was well padded but sat directly on the floor. Having always slept on a bed it was just so weird to be sleeping on a floor. All of this was strange, new, and exciting. This was the first time ever on the mortal plane that she had been away from Nodoka.

"What a long day." Ranma exclaimed as he entered the room and dropped down on his bedding face first.

"Why did you become a boy again?" She asked. "Your hair is all wet now."

"Other than the fact that this is my real body, sleeping with wings is very uncomfortable." The young boy answered.

Glancing behind herself, she flexed her wings. "I guess so." Having woken up on more than one occasion with one or both of her wings in a painful position, she couldn't argue against that. "Do I have to be all the way over here?" Ranma had setup the bedding so that she was farther away while the other two who were quite close.

Genma hit Ranma on top of the head with one of those wooden sign. #Knock it off boy#

"Knock what off?" Ranma whined, rubbing at the top of his head, but not moving from his face down position. "That's just where I put it."

"Oh good." Grabbing the edge of the bedding, she quickly dragged it over to be touching the one Ranma was using. "So why don't you have real beds?"

"They're expensive and these are just fine." The boy answered tiredly while sliding underneath the covers.

'It's a money thing?' Shrugging, she got underneath the covers herself. Shifting around to try and find a comfortable position, she found the bedding far too hard, and she could even feel the cool wood underneath. 'How is anyone supposed to sleep on one of these things?' She asked herself with disgust and turned to ask Ranma if there were any beds available but she stopped when she saw that he was already sleep. Genma as well was also asleep if his loud snoring was any indicator.

'These conditions are atrocious, I'll have to convince him to get proper sleeping arrangements.' Till then she would have to deal with this situation as best she could.

X x x x x x

"I have failed once again." Tatewaki let out a breath slowly, his eye closed, and feeling the heat of the candles arrayed in front of him on his face. "I failed to save Ranma Saotome from his possession and now today I have allowed a demon to roam free around this city."

Opening his eyes, he grabbed a candle, and held it up to light another. "I still have not dealt with the succubus who infests my city. This place is becoming a haven for infernals and I cannot seem to stem this tide." He had no altar, nor images of Mico, they were not permitted. He could only imagine what the Goddess might look like.

"Please Mico, lend your cleric wisdom." Bending forward he rested his forehead on the floor. He was a medium through which her power acted but he so rarely received guidance on how to use it. He would not lose hope though, his Goddess would give him the needed strength to remove the demons from this land. All he had to do was be patient and wait for her to direct his path.

"Tatewaki Kuno." A small sounding feminine voice made him raise his head up from the floor. Floating in the air above several candles was a small fairy girl made of red light.

"I have seen you before." He noted, remembering that the sprite had been in the presence of Nabiki.

"Mico seeks to grant you your request." The girl announced, her wings fluttering rapidly to keep her in the air.

"She works through you?" He asked and she nodded her head.

"She does not simply give, you must prove yourself worthy of a blessing."

'A blessing?' He thought excitedly, his mouth becoming dry. "What is it I must do? I shall do anything that is asked."

"All that she asks is for you to find her." Spinning in the air to face away from him, the fairy moved her hands in a big circle. On the wall in front of her a portal rapidly grew from a point of red light until it was large enough that he could comfortably walk through. Beyond the ring of red light was what looked like the middle of a forest, there was little that he could see past trees, the ground, and some sunshine passing through the leaves.

"I have but to find her?" He asked for clarification. Surely he would be able to notice his Goddess in such a place. She should stand out like the sun itself.

"From this point on, she will accept no failure. If you do not accomplish the task, you will never leave this place."

'My lady must put great faith in me if she would put this before me.' Taking a deep breath, he steeled his resolve. "I shall not fail her."

X x x x x x

Pepa blinked repeatedly and looked around the room that she found herself in. "Why am I here?" Last she remembered she had been watching that evil succubus do a demon summoning then she had woken up here. Pouting, she absently played her hand through the flame created by a candle. "Oh well." Shrugging, she headed off to go see if she could find Kasumi.

X x x x x x

Author Notes

Michiko - Girl of the road

Please tell me you can get the joke. She has been planned for some time, very rapidly after I finalized what I was going to do with Nodoka. Although originally they were both going to be much different.

Poor Kuno really should check the fine print with his agreement to work for Mico because we won't be seeing him for some time. This bit was inspired by an old fable I read at one point, the myth about Narcissus, and another Greek myth that I can't remember at the moment but it's not important.

X x x x x x

**Cliché Staff**  
Chapter 4: A Cliché Mascot Appears!  
By Bree R.

Nodoka hummed to herself as she made her way downstairs and to breakfast. Ranma was coming along so very nicely she idly considered. Her daughter was advancing amazingly quickly in the magical fields and thanks to her ignorance she was wonderfully tweaking her oblivious daughter to make her proud. Smiling she thanked her dark goddess that Genma did such a poor job educating her offspring about life's more pleasurable activities.

"Good morning." She greeted the mortals and prospective daughter-in-law tiefling gathered around the low table. "Hmm, something wrong?" She asked, noticing that the mood in the room was serious.

"Someone kidnapped Ranma." Kasumi answered worry evident in her tone.

"The boy only fetched one hundred gold this time." Genma said.

"Strange." She remarked calmly. "Well this will be good magical training for her and a chance to use her new talents."

"New magic?" Pepa called out eagerly.

Nodoka was taken aback for a moment before she got a wicked gleam in her eye and smiled evilly. "Indeed my daughter is the bearer of an ancient magical artifact that grants her great power. I have helped her become more familiar with its uses. I've also been working with Kasumi here she's learned a lot as well."

"Kasumi-oneechan why didn't you tell me! I need to learn how to banish demons!" Pepa said flying in front of Kasumi's face pouting.

Kasumi briefly glared at the red-headed succubus before turning her attention back to the fairy in front of her and putting a smile back on her face. "That's simply not true Pepa. I've never worn any short cut magical outfit nor engaged in any training with 'Auntie' Nodoka." Kasumi said curtly.

"My Kasumi no need to be so modest…" Nodoka began to which Kasumi began to twitch the wood around her beginning to rot to match her agitated mood. "You took to the whip more rapidly than some of the most skilled succubae I've ever met." To this Kasumi blushed briefly before refocusing. "And the fire spells! My goodness child, you've come so far with those. Before you know it you'll be able to burn this whole city to the ground!" The succubus proclaimed excitedly.

"Enough!" Kasumi exclaimed before calming herself embarrassed at her outburst. "I don't want anything to do with you and your short magical but still cute skirts, and ideals which pervert all my pure girlish fantasies." Kasumi said primly before walking off to her room unaware of the slack-jawed looks the conversation had generated on the other members of the household.

"Ah she'll make a wonderful wife for my daughter once I succeed in getting her out of her shell a little more." Nodoka said smugly.

"Indeed." Genma and Soun parroted happily.

"Short magical skirts?" Pepa muttered from in the air her face scrunched up cutely in an effort to think carefully. "Then that means they're a…team of magical strippers!" Pepa said proudly causing the assembled family to start laughing to Pepa's consternation. Frowning and flashing a dark blue in color Pepa continued, "So if not magical strippers then wait I know...magical brothel keepers?" Pepa said excitedly while the rest of the assembled family looked on aghast..

"No Pepa." Nabiki began irritatingly. "Ranma discovered a magical staff of immense power and now he transforms with it into a garish purple outfit. I mean, who would wear such a thing? I know I certainly wouldn't..."

"My girl are you jealous?" The red headed succubus interrupted her, asking the question with false innocence.

"Jea-lous? Me? The idiot doesn't even want to use it as the gold making possibility it is. Think themed exorcism parties, birthday parties, religious rituals all wasted because he's too short..."

"OOOH! MAGICAL Girls! I know all about those." Pepa exclaimed hopping up and down in the air. "See?" She stated happily transforming her outfit into a deep black sheer lace fuku a large bazooka strapped to her back with a large black sequined bow. Black latex boots completed the sexy but deadly look and would've added a good five inches to the fairies height had she been standing on something rather then floating in the air.

"My-my...What an interesting outfit I'll have to take some notes." Nodoka said before pulling a pen and paper out of nowhere and quickly sketching down the outfit before grabbing the fairy out of the air and taking measurements with a hastily procured measuring tape writing those down as well.

"Yes that's correct overly annoying stereotypical fairy. My own son forced to be some magical perverted guardian." Genma lamented tears coming to his eyes. "Oh what did I ever do to have such a horrible fate befall my only child?" Genma lamented before beginning to weep.

"I did tell you the child would be plane touched and that would have interesting affects on the child's luck sweetie." Nodoka stated plainly finishing up her sketch and letting the struggling fairy go which flew quickly away from the succubus in human guise. "It's not my fault she's so good at generating chaos and lust. A chip off the old block." Nodoka said proudly.

Nabiki gave the fairy a dry look before drawling out, "And what do you know about magical girls Pepa?" Nabiki drawled. "It's not like you to know much of anything really."

"Oh? I never mentioned? My goddess loves the whole magical girl thing." Pepa replied happily. "Although some of them are kind of untraditional and weird looking with all the lace and manic laughter and magical boomsticks. Wait a second. This means then that I wasn't created to banish demons. No Ranma neechan helped to make me to be the magical girl mascot for her team. That's why she was so mean to me, I wasn't doing my job! And worse, I let the evil general take her away and didn't wake her up for school in a snarky fashion! Oh no I've failed I have to go get Kasumi and save her!" Pepa exclaimed frantically flying upstairs and somehow dragging a resisting Kasumi behind her. "Ranma we're coming to save you!" With that the fairy took to the air dragging the stuggling Kasumi by the tail.

"Well that was unexpected." Nodoka replied.

"Oh I know I'll go cook with Kasumi away!" This only caused Soun to cry all the harder.


	6. Machinations

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

Spoken spell

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

X x x x x x

"No, just no." Ranma stomped down the steps with his sister trailing behind him.

"But it was cold and you looked cold and I just thought it would be nice if we could warm each other up."

"If I'm cold I'll go get another blanket. If you were cold, you should have gone for the giant furry space heater that was right next to me." Ranma snapped.

"Are all humans as uptight as you are?"

"Nodoka explained human culture to you right?"

"Yes." Michiko nodded.

"Part of human culture is that you don't go invading somebody's personal space without permission. And no, you do not have permission to slip into my futon so you can cuddle with me." He threw his hands up in the air in disgust.

"I really do not understand why you're so upset about this. You were even purring, I didn't even know humans could do that."

"I was not purring!" He protested.

"Sure you were, I even thought you had a cat here at first."

"I do not purr." He said through clenched teeth.

"You do." Nabiki added as she rushed past him.

"And how would you know?" Ranma rolled his eyes.

"I sneak into your room at night and punch you in the face."

"What?" Ranma quickly caught up to the middle Tendo sister.

"Just joking." Nabiki sing songed. "Or am I?"

'I still have that glitter wand.' Ranma glowered at Nabiki as they entered into the living room. Inside, Soun was already up reading the local newspaper, and Akane was furiously writing on a piece of paper while occasionally glancing at a nearby book.

"Still not done with that Akane?" Nabiki sat down next to her sister.

"No." Akane whined, glancing up and noticing Michiko. "That's a- nice dress." The dress itself was black, made from a thin and slightly reflective fabric, and was provocatively cut.

"Thank you." Michiko replied as she knelt down next to the table, either not catching that Akane was being sarcastic or choosing to ignore it. "Although I'll have to wear something warmer if I sleep on one of those things again. This plane is colder than I remember. Is there some reason why it's so cold?"

"This is fairly normal for this time of year." Soun joined the conversation, dropping his newspaper to his lap.

"Why would the time of year matter?" Michiko asked in confusion.

"Because there are seasons here." Ranma answered rather than have this be drawn out. "It's not always summer."

"Oh!" The tiefling nodded. "Now I remember."

"So how did you know what she needed to know?" Nabiki asked him like he was hiding a big secret.

"What?" He shrugged. "You think Nodoka never mentioned what it was like there?" Of course when Nodoka had brought it up, the story revolved around her finding another succubus shortly after Genma had left with him, so that she could find out more about what she had been turned into. But the description of the place was probably accurate.

"Here's breakfast." Kasumi entered the room carrying a tray with several plates with food and set it down on the table. The eldest Tendo sister briefly gave the scantily clad Michiko a disapproving look before starting to serve everyone.

As if summoned, Genma arrived at the table still in bear form, and Ranma rolled his eyes. Now that Genma could switch back and forth, he spent just as much time as a bear than he did as a human. The form certainly suited his personality. If he ever needed money he would be selling Genma out as entertainment. It certainly worked well when they had needed money while searching for Jusenkyo. Genma acted as a trained animal while Ranma had been the trainer. That little enterprise had actually brought in a lot of money.

"So what are you planning to do today?" Kasumi asked, handing a bowl to Michiko.

"Mom wants me to go and have lunch with her but other than that I thought I might explore the city." The tiefling paused. "Then again that cleric tried to attack me yesterday. Is that common here?"

"Kuno?" Akane guessed.

"That was his name."

"He's an idiot." Ranma said at the same time as Akane.

"You know him?" Michiko asked.

"He thinks I'm possessed." He answered.

"He thinks defeating me in a fight is going to stop our family from having infernal ancestry. Then he can marry me." Akane explained her problem with the cleric. "But no, that's not common."

"Humans can be so strange." Michiko shrugged and ate her food.

X x x x x x

Michiko was searching for Kasumi after changing into one of her favorite dresses. The dress was a deep green that reached down to her knee with a slit up the left side to mid-thigh, and the patterns on it in combination with the cut helped make her figure more pronounced. Her mother always said she was beautiful but she knew that she needed a little extra help with how she seemed to be lagging behind her peers.

"Hello." She greeted the other tiefling who was sitting on a chair outside next to a garden knitting something.

"Hello." Kasumi replied curtly. "Did you need anything?"

"No, I was just looking to find out more about the city, and I'm not really comfortable around the humans." She wasn't afraid of humans or other denizens of the mortal plane, but they were so different. Even her brother thought of things in such a strange way. The incident this morning when he had woken up had driven that home. How could anyone react like that just for sharing a bed?

"What would you like to know?" Kasumi set aside her knitting.

"Well what is there that's interesting to do?"

"I find the market quite interesting." The golden haired girl answered. "But I'm not really the best person to ask. I spend most of my time at home."

"Then what do you do?"

"I knit, I cook, I tend my garden. It's not always exciting but I enjoy what I do."

"How about my brother? What does he do?"

"Ranma trains with his father, sometimes he'll help me in the garden or around the house, there's no specific routine that he follows." The other tiefling answered. "But wouldn't it be better to ask him that?"

"Probably." Shrugging, she didn't feel like being around him at the moment with how sour his attitude was. "You told me about his curse yesterday, but one thing has been bothering me."

"What is it?"

"My father turning into some strange creature is fine but isn't it kind of strange that he fell into a pool that turned him into a tiefling like that? I mean, of all the possible things he could have become, he became like me."

"Yes, I admit that is- convenient." Kasumi looked to the side briefly, an action that Michiko believed would have gone unnoticed were it not for having eyes being made of a solid color as well.

"Tell me about this market." She decided to change the subject. Nodoka seemed to be in on that line of information and she would ask when she went over for lunch later. "Are there any good clothing shops?"

"Several actually, my favorite is the one run Mrs. Osaka , she charges a little more but will do certain alterations for free."

"Would you mind taking me later? I would like to see what kind of fashions are available here."

"Of course." Kasumi nodded. "I've been needing to have her mend something for a while now."

"Thank you!" She gushed and hugged the older tiefling around the shoulders. 'Hmm, she feels kind of warm.'

"No- no- no need to thank me." The draconic tiefling blushed slightly at the contact.

"I really like you, let's be good friends." Michiko squeezed Kasumi a little tighter.

Kasumi laughed nervously and patted her on the shoulder. "Okay, but could you let me go for now?"

"Okay." She was just releasing the other tiefling when something tugged on her tail hard. "Ow!" Spinning around, she couldn't find anyone there.

"Something wrong?" Kasumi asked.

"I thought I just felt someone tug on my tail." Scratching at the side of her head, she knew she hadn't imagined it.

"There's no one else here." The other tiefling glanced around the area.

"Hmm, oh well."

X x x x x x

Ranma eyed his father, the man was still in his bear form, and was laid out on his side on the floor being his usual lazy self. Michiko had left to go visit Nodoka and had attempted to get him to go with as well. When he had flatly refused she had actually accepted without any further questions. He had been expecting her to try harder. Ranma might have even gone just so he could continue to work against Nodoka but he had another concern.

"Why are you still a bear?" He finally asked while taking a seat next to the bear.

#So no one asks me to do anything# Genma quickly wrote on a sign and held it up.

"Is that it?" It was hard for him to tell if his father was lying through a wooden sign. He knew what to look for in Genma's body language but he appeared to be either serious or was committed to the lie fully.

#Something up?#

"Ya." He glanced around, checking to see if there was anyone else around. "Last night it took me two tries to change back." Genma shifted himself up into a sitting position and stared at him. "The first time it took over a minute just to get halfway and then it just went backwards in a second. Second time, it took just as long but was able to work."

#That doesn't sound good#

"You don't have to deal with that?" Ranma asked, unable to stop a hint of anger from entering his voice.

#It's always slower going human# Flip #But only by a few seconds#

"Damn it." He balled his hands up into fists.

#Any ideas?#

Letting his hands relax, he stared down at them, and tried to think of why this might be happening now. "That God, when I was coming back from the Drow, I saw him again."

#Go on.#

Scratching at his left shoulder blade where he was still branded, he looked away from Genma. "I thought he just took off the tracking spell they had on me. But-." He trailed off. "He specifically mentioned it." He stood up suddenly and started to pace around. "The tracking spell, he said that he took that off as thanks for freeing him." Chewing on his lower lip he glanced at Genma. "What's going to happen to me?"

#If Jusenkyo stops working, we'll find something else of course#

"What?" Ranma snapped. "Nothing else worked."

#If you want to be negative, get used to being a tiefling# Genma signed to him before dropping back down to a laying position.

"You're useless." Ranma snarled. "Every time something has to be done, every time you've gotten into trouble, every time I could have used your help, you just roll over and let me deal with it." Shaking with rage, he was happy that he had at least gotten Genma's attention. "I almost wish that you hadn't come across me and her that night." Spinning on his heel, he stormed off before he did something rash.

Heading into the heart of the city to talk to Tofu and find out if he had figured anything about the mushrooms, Ranma failed to keep his thoughts away from his family. 'I got a mom who loves me utterly when I'm what she wants me to be and I got a dad who couldn't care less about what happens to me.' Giving off a soft mirthless laugh, he moved automatically threw the crowd of people in a particularly busy area of town. 'I'd be better off without either of them.'

He wondered why he had added that last part to Genma. Ranma had no clue how his life would have progressed if Nodoka had continued to mold him into what she wanted. But he did know that if she had been open and honest with what she had been, his life with Genma would have been over.

"Are you sad that you're not going to be able to change back?" Pepa asked, the fairy appearing in front of him, and quickly shot over to sit on his shoulder.

"What do you want?" He asked irritably. "And how did you know about that?"

"I heard you talking to the bear man." The fairy answered.

"You were spying." Ranma angrily snatched the fairy from his shoulder and started to squeeze her.

"I just wanted to know who that tiefling was that accosted Kasumi." Pepa explained rapidly.

"Michiko?" He guessed, letting up on the pressure slightly.

"Uh huh." The fairy nodded.

"She's my sister- and she accosted Kasumi?" Ranma asked in confusion.

"She did! She grabbed her and wouldn't let her go!"

He knew from experience that succubae were a very hands on race but Kasumi should have easily been able to escape Michiko if she had grabbed on to her and refused to let her go. "Are you sure it wasn't like a hug or something?"

Pepa opened her mouth like she wanted to say something but stopped. "It was a very aggressive hug!"

"Shut up." Rolling his eyes, he threw the overprotective fairy off to the side, and continued on his way. Pepa recovered and rapidly caught up with him to continue hovering nearby.

"Hey Tofu! You here?" He called out as he entered the clinic. It turned out that there was no need to yell because the man was walking through the main area with a large box in his hands.

"Ah Ranma, I tried to stop by yesterday but for some reason I ended up on the other side of town." The doctor set down the box. "Isn't that just the oddest thing?"

"Yea sure." Ranma answered dismissively. "What were you coming over for?"

"I heard back about those mushrooms."

"Really?" He was over next to the man in an instant, staring up at him expectantly. "And?"

"I was just making some tea, would you like some?"

"I'd like to know when I can turn back to my real age."

"That'll be real soon." Tofu headed into a side room and Ranma followed. Pepa had hung back and was peaking around the corner. "It turns out that the medicinal properties of the mushrooms are quite limited. They are nicknamed the mushrooms of time and they lose their properties within hours of being taken from the ground. There are also some very undesirable long term side effects." The man handed Ranma cup filled with tea before taking some for himself.

"And?"

"But they grow extremely rapidly. They affect age by a chemical within them that grows in concentration in direct relation to their size."

"What does that mean?" Ranma asked hurriedly.

"It means that they alter your age to be the size that they are. One centimeter equals one year."

"So all I have to do is go eat one that's sixteen centimeters long and I'll be my real age again?" Ranma blinked several times.

"That's it."

"That's it! I've been stuck as a kid when I could have been back to normal just by eating a bigger one!" He yelled hysterically.

"Yes." Tofu nodded. "Is- there something else that's wrong?"

"Is there anything that's right?" Ranma answered in disgust over how easy this situation should have been resolved.

"I have some time before my next patient arrives if you want to talk about it?"

"No." Drinking his cup of tea in one gulp, he sighed. "Thanks for the help." He said as he left the room. Ranma didn't sound the least bit thankful for the man's help but he couldn't bring up the desire to care. Besides, Tofu was lusting after a girl who was probably young enough to be his daughter. Grabbing Pepa on his way out, he held the fairy up to his face. "I'm not letting you out of my sight you little spy."

"Awww." Pepa whined.

X x x x x x

"Thanks Kasumi." Ranma eyed the mushroom Kasumi had just cooked expectantly. Grabbing it, he raised it up to his mouth to take a bite and end his childish nightmare when the tiefling stopped him. "What?"

"Shouldn't you change clothes first?" She suggested.

"Uh- yea I guess." Rushing out of the kitchen, he barely noticed Michiko had returned from her lunch with Nodoka as he rushed up the steps to the second floor. Stripping out of his clothing before he had even entered his room, he had to hop past the doorway because his left foot wouldn't cooperate. "No more being a kid!" He announced happily to himself and rapidly took several bites of the fungus.

Pausing in the hope that he didn't have to eat the whole thing, he held his breath while waiting. Almost ready to start eating more, he felt a heavy thump reverberate through his chest and his heart started to beat faster. His entire body suddenly felt like rubber and with one quick motion the world shrunk around him.

"It worked!" Ranma exclaimed, checking his body to find that it seemed to be back at the right age.

"Not bad at all." Michiko's comment made him pause and slowly look to where she was at the door.

"Eep!" Before his sister could even register the movement he had grabbed some normal sized clothing and had them on.

"Awww." The tiefling whined. "Is big brother shy?"

"What are you doing? Just sitting there watching me?" He crossed his arms.

"You are shy." Michiko's smile was so large that her eyes had to close.

Gathering as much dignity as he could, he pushed past her to head down and spread the good news. The only other occupants to the home were Kasumi, Soun, and his father. Nabiki and Akane were still off at school. Since he still planned to pay his father back by feeding him one of the mushrooms, he did not explain details on how he had been turned back, choosing to be as vague as possible.

"Hey old man, how bout a proper spar?" He asked Genma, now that he wasn't some runty kid, he'd show his father a thing or two.

"Maybe later." Genma was sitting with his arms crossed and Ranma could tell that he was going to make a big show of not training for several days.

"You're getting soft old man." He taunted and considered forcing the issue. The only warning that he had something was going to happen were Genma's beady eyes shifting to something behind him. "Hmm?" Glancing back, hot water cascaded over him. "Why did you do that?" She yelled at Michiko, the change had been nearly instantaneous, and since she had not expected it she ended up standing on a heel not designed for supporting weight in that way.

"I just wanted to see what you looked like." Michiko recoiled at her anger.

"Well now you do!" She yelled at the girl, her anger shocking everyone around her.

"I- I- I'm sorry." Michiko stammered. Glaring at her sister for a moment longer, Ranma's gaze softened briefly before she stomped off towards the kitchen to get cold water.

X x x x x x

Michiko peeked around the corner and into the kitchen, chewing on her lower lip worriedly, and watching her brother at the sink. Kasumi was behind her, the other tiefling also looking in through the doorway. Ranma splashed himself with more of the cool water and waited. Quickly at first, the red haired girl started to change back to a boy. This did not last long, the change sputtered and slowed, and it wasn't till nearly a minute later that it rapidly reversed. Three more tries resulted in the change to male being slower and the change back to tiefling happening faster. Finally, the change to male stopped all together.

Ranma rested both hands on the side of the sink and bowed her head. "Please work, please work, please work."

Kasumi patted her on the shoulder as she moved past her to enter the kitchen. Michiko watched the eldest Tendo sister walk up to Ranma and stand next to the basin. "Ranma, maybe you should wait before you try changing back. Jusenkyo might take time to gather the needed magic."

"Can you tell if I still have it?" The red head looked up at Kasumi. "Is Jusenkyo still there?"

"It's- very weak." Kasumi answered unsure of herself.

"I need." Ranma covered her face with her hands briefly. "You're right, I'll try again later." The red head's wings briefly spread before she seemed to regain her composure. "I'm going to be up in my room if you need me."

"Alright." Kasumi nodded.

Michiko flattened herself against the wall, watching as Ranma turned down the hall the other way, and seemed to ignore her completely. Briefly fighting herself on her course of action, she finally decided to follow her brother. What little she knew about this Jusenkyo curse was that cold water would revert them back to their original form. So why wasn't that working for Ranma? She also wondered why it was that Ranma had fallen into such a convenient spring? One that turned him into a tiefling that was clearly the daughter of Nodoka.

"Um- brother." She licked her lips and wondered just what part of her was stupid enough to draw the attention of her unstable sibling. A sibling that she could tell was warping the magic around her with just her passive presence. 'What could she do if she put her mind to it?'

"I shouldn't have snapped at you." Ranma didn't stop digging into a large traveling pack.

'This seems like a good sign.' She entered into the room and slowly approached her sibling.

Ranma finally paused in what she was doing after pulling out several scrolls. The red head started to stutter before sighing. "I'm not good at apologizing."

"Why are you so angry?" She asked. As far as she was concerned, there was no downside to this transformation.

"Stop acting like such a succubus and think about it." Ranma opened up one of the scrolls and spread it out on the floor.

Frowning at the insult, she watched Ranma read in silence. Dropping into a sitting position near Ranma, she watched the other tiefling throw the scroll away in disgust. Michiko leaned back and propped herself up with her arms behind her. She remembered when Ranma had tracked her down to Nodoka's apartment and still couldn't find why he would be so angry for being turned into a she.

"I don't understand why you're angry." She admitted. "I'm sorry."

Ranma's tail did a single agitated swish in response but didn't voice any thoughts.

"But even though I can't understand it, it's something that depresses you, and I'd like to help however I can." Michiko announced and received an incredulous look from her sibling.

"So you care what happens to a guy?" Ranma asked sarcastically.

"I'd have a hard time calling you a guy right now. But- maybe there's a little human in me that might." She blushed in embarrassment, hoping that no one ever found out she ever admitted to being concerned about someone who was actually male.

"Thanks, I think." The red head actually smiled in response to her comment.

"So- what are you looking for?" She slid over to take a look at the scroll. Having made some kind of breakthrough through the shell Ranma had put up.

"If Jusenkyo won't work, I have to find something that will." Ranma planted a finger on the parchment directly below a name.

"Lutansk?"

X x x x x x

"What's in Lutansk?" Akane asked, having returned home with Nabiki to find Ranma back to his real age, and in female form. Soun, Kasumi, Genma, Pepa, and Michiko were sitting with Ranma in the living room. The red haired tiefling had a scroll spread out on the table with a large amount of detail on a city named Lutansk. She was surprised by the proximity of Michiko to Ranma. The girl was actually sitting right next to Ranma, almost touching even.

"A cure." Ranma tried to sound confident as she said it.

"A cure." Pepa repeated in a mocking tone that earned her a slap from Ranma.

"Lutansk?" Kasumi mused. "Father, isn't that where mother trained?"

"I do believe it is." Soun answered. "It's on an island and has a big academy for magic if I remember right."

"So why do you have this scroll?" Nabiki picked up the parchment to inspect.

"After Jusenkyo that's where we were going to go." Ranma pulled the scroll away from Nabiki.

"But you can't do magic as a guy." Nabiki raised an eyebrow and Akane could see the gears turning in her older sister's head.

"Nope, she can't." Pepa snickered.

"It's a dangerous place." Ranma quickly added and hit the fairy once again. "And Pop's stupid ideas about training usually mean throwing me to the wolves."

"Why is it dangerous?" Michiko asked.

"It's built on a magic focus." Ranma read off the scroll. "And there's this demon lord that's trying to get at it. Seems like he's using reanimated corpses as soldiers." (1)

"Why would anyone want to go there?" She asked incredulously.

"The city is secure, some sort of magical barrier that stops these corpses from getting close. But I don't think you'd take too many walks outside the wall." Ranma answered her question.

"And you need to go there why?" Akane was curious over this information. She guessed that it had something to do with Nodoka reaching a boiling point.

"Because I can't change back." Ranma answered morosely.

"That sounds like a good reason." She had not been expecting that. 'How's he explaining it though?' If Ranma was still trying to hide how he became a tiefling then Akane hoped that he was good at phrasing.

"Are you going to fly there?" Michiko asked. "You do have wings, you don't need to travel like a human."

"Sort of." Ranma rolled her eyes briefly but seemed to be considering the suggestion in some way. "There's an airship at Yuresti and that's the only way to get there."

"Sounds expensive." Soun noted.

"I'll pick up jobs on the way to pay for things." Ranma frowned.

"Taking up the oldest profession?" Nabiki snickered, earning a smoldering glare from Ranma.

"Are you going to leave your fiancée here boy?" Genma jumped into the conversation.

"Are you suggesting I take her along?" The red haired tiefling sighed in disgust. "This isn't for fun."

"Are you abandoning my little girl?" Soun got right up in Ranma's face.

"Wha- wha- what?" Ranma fell backwards from the Tendo patriarch.

"I wouldn't mind going." Kasumi caused everyone to pause. "That is- if it's alright with Ranma- and someone will be willing to tend to my garden while I'm gone."

"No Kasumi you can't go!" Pepa cried out, lunging at Kasumi, and latching on to her as best she could.

"It could be a honeymoon Tendo." Genma told a suddenly crying Soun.

"A- a- honeymoon? But my little girl can't leave!" Soun started to cry in earnest and joined Pepa in hugging Kasumi. "Say you'll never leave me!"

"Do you really want to go Kasumi?" Ranma asked, ignoring the emotional displays from Soun and Pepa.

"You can't be a fiancé like that- right?" Kasumi softly patted their father on the back as he continued to sob. "And this way father will pay for everything, right daddy?" Soun's crying intensified.

'Kasumi wants to go?' Akane gave her father a disgusted look. Kasumi usually didn't even leave the property except to go to several usual spots. "I guess I can cook while Kasumi is gone." She suggested. Finally it was her time to shine, to show that she could handle taking care of a home. At her suggestion, Soun collapsed to the ground and blubbered incoherently.

X x x x x x

"There's a rip." Ranma picked at a small tear in the heavy fabric that made up her traveling pack. Poking a delicate finger through it, she frowned, and considered finding a new one for this trip. She would never throw it out, this thing had been her constant companion ever since she was little, and Genma had made her carry the heavy pack as training. The problem was that it was very uncomfortable to use it with wings sprouting from her back.

'Then again.' Ranma's shoulders slumped. She was happy to have Kasumi coming but she knew well enough that two tieflings traveling together may raise suspicions. It was a sad fact of life as she had found out whenever she ended up going into town with Kasumi in this form. Now that she had the option, she could appear human, and that could be avoided.

Closing her eyes, Ranma briefly concentrated, and in a few short seconds her demonic features melted away leaving her looking human. Hearing footsteps coming towards her from the hallway, she considered dropping the disguise but they would probably find out sooner or later. Spinning around to face the door, Kasumi turned out to be the source of the footsteps.

"Ranma?" The eldest Tendo asked in shock.

"What? I said I could do this." Ranma smirked. "You packed yet?"

"Packed? Already? I-." Kasumi's face went through several expressions before settling on concerned. "Do you really think you should be doing that?"

"Don't worry." She let the disguise drop and stretched her wings briefly. "I know that trying to hide being a tiefling is worse than being one. And yea, packed." Grabbing the scroll that held the city information, she checked the schedule for when the airship would be arriving. "If we don't head out this week then we won't make it in time to catch the last airship for the winter."

"Oh, um, what should I pack? I've never traveled before."

"I have a tent big enough for both of us, got some cooking supplies, so really all you should need are clothes."

"What kind of clothes?" Kasumi asked with embarrassment.

"Heh. Stuff you wouldn't really mind getting dirty, maybe one set of good ones." Ranma stopped, realizing an issue. "Do you have something to carry it in?"

Kasumi gained a far off look on her face briefly. "No I do not."

"Are there any at the market?" Michiko said from right next to her. Ranma blinked several times and slowly turned her head towards her sister.

"Aah!" She screamed and scrambled away from the other tiefling. "How did you do that?" She demanded while breathing heavily. Nodoka and now Michiko had both been able to sneak up on her now.

"I just came in through the window." Michiko raised an eyebrow and pointed to the open window. "I know! Ranma could help you pick something out, you know how you said you would take me clothing shopping."

"I did, didn't I?" Kasumi smiled nervously. "How about you go wait for me downstairs and we can go? I wanted to ask Ranma something."

"Okay." Michiko chirped happily and used the door to leave the room.

"So what is it?" Ranma watched her sister leave, still thinking that there might be some sort of succubus taught stealth technique she did not know.

"You seem to be handling this well. You're not bottling all this up are you?"

"Uh-." Ranma scratched at the back of her head. "No, I'm not bottling anything up. Actually I'm kind of happy in a way. I mean, it wasn't like I really had anything to do lately, and now I have a goal. Something to accomplish."

"That's a good way to look at it." Kasumi glanced at the doorway. "You're coming with me to the market right?"

"Sure." Ranma nodded, wanting to see if she could find something that would work better than her old traveling pack, and it seemed like Kasumi could use some help keeping Michiko from getting into trouble.

X x x x x x

Ranma narrowed her eyes at the middle Tendo sister who was tagging along on the trip into town. Nabiki rarely did anything with Kasumi and certainly not when Ranma was around. But here she was, with this little smile on her face that showed off her barely restrained glee at something.

"It's nice that you wanted to come along Nabiki." Kasumi smiled pleasantly at her sister.

"And miss spending time with my dear older sister before she goes away on a journey?" Nabiki announced dramatically.

"Pull the other one." Ranma snorted. "That money she got was for clothes and traveling supplies, not for you to mooch off of."

"I feel insulted." Nabiki turned her head with a quick sniff.

"Then I got my point across." She nodded.

"Say Michiko." Nabiki drew the tieflings attention away from the nearby shops. "Don't you think Ranma would look good in something more feminine?"

"Wait a minute." Ranma attempted to stop the two from talking about that.

"I think the mortal fashions cover too much. If- um." Michiko glanced at her. "My- brother should get anything it's something from the succubae plane. Much more flattering."

"Absolutely not." Ranma protested. "Slacks and a tunic are what I like."

"I never said you had to get anything different." Nabiki paused at a shop to look at some trinket. "But surely you could get something that doesn't hang off of you like a tent."

"I know what you're trying to do Nabiki- and I don't like it." She wished that she had that glitter wand on hand. It would let Nabiki know exactly who had done that but it'd be worth it.

"Oh come on big- brother, this human just seems to want to help you out." Michiko tugged at Ranma's sleeve. "We could get something that matched! Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Loads." Ranma rolled her eyes.

"You know, if you don't want me around, I'll just go back to mom's." Michiko suddenly gave her an ultimatum. "I'm not just here to put up with a poor attitude."

She opened her mouth but bit back the retort that she would like to be free of having to keep track of Michiko. "Sorry. Uh- maybe- if we have money of course." She finished that sentence quickly. "Supplies for the trip come first."

Michiko's face lit up in a bright smile. "Oh that's no problem. Mom gave me a lot of money when I mentioned that Kasumi was going to take me here."

"How much did she give you?" Kasumi asked.

"Four hundred gold." The tiefling answered while shifting a small bag that was slung to her shoulder to the front and opened it up. "I'm just glad I have this enchanted bag or else I never would have been able to carry it at all." Peering into the bag with the two Tendo sisters, Ranma's eyes widened at the gold that was visible inside. (2)

"Four- hundred?" Nabiki questioned as if she was in pain.

"Is that not enough?" Michiko glanced at her uncertainly.

"That's more than we'll have to spend on the trip." Ranma answered.

"Did she say where she got all this money?" Kasumi asked, equally shocked about the amount of money that had been given to the young girl.

"Why would I ask?" Michiko shrugged before turning her head rapidly to fix on her. "This means we can get something!"

"I guess." Ranma bemoaned her fate. "But I have to like it."

"I'm sure I can find something." Michiko nodded to herself.

X x x x x x

Kasumi watched Ranma and Michiko with a thoughtful look on her face. Ranma was being attentive because Mrs. Osaka was getting clothing ideas suggested to her by Michiko. This was where Kasumi bought the majority of her clothing and the only place she brought it for the needed alterations. Nabiki was hovering nearby and was occasionally adding some small comment designed to embarrass Ranma.

Frowning internally, she felt that she should say something but Ranma seemed to be handling the comments with snide ones of her own. 'So this was why Nabiki wanted to come.' She thought sadly, this being just one more example of how petty Nabiki could be. Here was Ranma dealing with another problem and all her sister could think of was to torment the cursed boy.

"Nabiki." She pulled her younger sister off to the side. "Since dinner is going to be late tonight, why don't you go get some of that chocolate that Mr. Fuchida sells for desert? Not for you to snack on."

"And miss this?" Nabiki gestured towards the two siblings.

"Yes." Digging out some money, she gave it to her sister. "Here, you buy something for yourself."

"Alright." Nabiki's greedy nature was easy to play to.

X x x x x x

"This trip was almost worth it." Nabiki snickered as she counted the money Kasumi had given her. She would be purchasing some chocolate for desert but the rest would be going to the whatever Nabiki wanted fund. On top of getting money she was able to torment Ranma some more. Soon enough the cursed boy would be gone and she would have to find amusement with someone else.

Happily humming to herself, she nearly missed a woman who was checking out a nearby shop. Coming to a stop, she raised an eyebrow at the bright red hair that gave away Nodoka on the nearly vacant street. 'Maybe I can stir the pot just a little bit more.' Casually approaching the succubus, she acted surprised when she was close. "Oh hello." She greeted.

"Hello, fancy meeting you here." Nodoka responded in mock surprise with all the skill of Ranma at lying. "What brings you here?" (3)

"I was just out with Kasumi and your two children." She answered.

"Michiko mentioned going shopping when she visited earlier. But you said two, so is Ranma with them?"

"He- er she is." Nabiki tried to figure out how to get this to provide her with maximum amusement before realizing a very important fact. "Did you mean to send Michiko out with so much money?"

"Of course." Nodoka stepped away from the storefront. "Walk with me." Falling in step with the succubus, Nabiki was curious to find out more on where this money came from. "How are they getting along? Ranma and Michiko?"

"Well enough I guess." She wasn't at all interested in talking about those two unless it meant information on the money. "They were arguing about clothes last I saw. About that, you really should have told Michiko that you gave her a lot of money. Someone could have taken advantage of her."

"Michiko is a smart girl, I'm sure she can handle herself."

"Where did you get all that money?" She couldn't stop herself from asking any longer.

"Oh that? My plane uses the same currency and I want my little girl to have the best."

"So you're rich?" Licking her lips she reconsidered her position on the whole engagement. It wasn't like she needed to have much to do with Ranma, but if he could get money out of Nodoka, then it would be worth it. Then again Ranma did come with a whole bag of issues that she really didn't want to deal with.

"Compared to people on this plane, yes." Nodoka nodded. "I've never said this to you before but I do enjoy your company Nabiki."

"Really?" This was the most that she had ever talked to Nodoka alone. "I'm just trying to find out more about you. I find information on your plane- fascinating. I mean, you're a lot different than what you're portrayed to be."

"Succubae have such a poor reputation. Honestly I do not understand why this is."

"You are demons." She offered to keep the conversation moving while not really caring about what Nodoka had to say.

"A part of you is infernal as well." Nodoka pointed out. "The demon thing is overblown. Divine beings are no better, I mean look at what happened to Ranma." The succubus paused.

"You're not talking about all the stuff with Kuno- are you?" A devious smile slowly spread over her face.

"I shouldn't have said that but I suppose I should explain it to you to avoid any misconceptions. Would you like to come to my apartment? I have some new tea that I bought for Michiko's visit and I can give you the whole story."

Nabiki didn't immediately accept the offer of hospitality. Nodoka was a demon after all and it was common knowledge that you simply did not trust demons. On the other hand, this might start getting her into Nodoka's good graces, and would give her blackmail material on Ranma. "If I can stop and pick something up beforehand." She was not going to forget to pick up Kasumi's request chocolate because then her sister would ask for the money.

"That's no problem; I still need to pick up things for dinner myself."

X x x x x x

"No don't take those." Ranma shook her head at the large books that Kasumi wanted to bring. "Remember you have to carry everything." Sitting crosslegged on Kasumi's bed, she was helping the eldest Tendo pack. They would be leaving tomorrow or the next day at the absolute latest if everything went right.

"But you said that we would have to take an airship." Kasumi protested and sighing dreamily at the thought of traveling on an airship. "Won't I need something to do?"

"Then take one." She held up a single finger.

"You should charter a carriage so you don't have to walk." Michiko offered her input. She was also on Kasumi's bed but was lying on her side watching the eldest Tendo.

"Those things are so uncomfortable." Ranma rolled her shoulders just at the thought of having to sit in a cramped space like that for hours on end. "Might as well be in a cage." She added, thinking of the long ride in an actual cage that she had on her way to the Drow city.

"No mounts you could take?" Michiko wasn't slowed down by Ranma's response to her original suggestion.

"Do you know how to take care of a horse Kasumi?" She asked the tiefling. She herself had no clue on how to handle such an animal.

"No." Kasumi answered. "And I'm not good with horses."

"Really? Why is that?" Michiko asked.

"Dragons are known to eat horses as snacks- and I'm part dragon." The eldest Tendo sister explained.

"Oh." The dark haired girl nodded. "Have you ever had horse before?"

"What kind of question is that?" Ranma wanted to hit her sister of the head for such a stupid question.

"Maybe they're tasty?"

"Maybe you're tasty you demon!" Pepa snarled as she shot into the room and latched on to Kasumi. "Please tell me you're not going Kasumi!"

"I'm sorry Pepa but I want to go." Kasumi patted the fairy on the head.

"Why?" Pepa cried out.

Gently taking Pepa in both hands, Kasumi pulled the fairy made of light away from her body to talk to. "Pepa this is where my mom learned magic. There should be people that knew her there and I want to find out more about her."

"So you're not going to help her?" Pepa pointed to Ranma and she sneered in response.

"I am, but I do have more than one reason for going."

"But Kasumi." Pepa whined.

"Don't worry, you can come to."

"Eh?" Ranma spoke up. "Why would you want that screw up to come?"

"She's been helpful before." Kasumi defended the failed banishment spell. "And you really should be nicer to her. You helped make her after all."

"Don't remind me." She rolled her eyes.

"And Pepa, you should be nicer to Ranma, he didn't ask to become part demon." Kasumi chastised the fairy.

"But Kasumi! She's evil, she's conniving, she's dastardly, manipulative, vicious, cruel, and I bet she's corrupting her younger sister to be just as bad!" Pepa protested, her wings fluttering violently with each description.

"That's a whole lot of adjectives." Michiko reached a hand over and patted her on the back.

"Not my fault she makes my skin crawl." She blanched off to the side.

"There is something about her that leaves a bad taste in your mouth." Her sister added.

"If I didn't know she'd be even more annoying, I'd hand her over to Kuno." Ranma slid off the bed. "I'm going to go see if I can change back." After that she would be taking a closer look at the route they needed to follow, packing her own things, and then it would be a good night's sleep. Since Michiko had found something that Ranma could agree with, she would be picking the outfit up in the morning when the seamstress was done making the alterations.

As she passed her room, she stopped a step past the door, and backed up to look inside. "What are you doing?" She asked her father as he was busy shoving things in and out of his traveling pack.

"Getting ready to go." Genma answered.

"Going where?" She leaned against the door and crossed her arms.

"Are you right in the head boy? Where do you think I'm going?"

Ranma let out a long breath. She had always traveled with Genma but she did not want to this time. Genma's casual dismissal about her problems with Jusenkyo, his complete and utter lack of concern about her being sold into slavery again, and the way he had supported Nodoka over her.

"Not this time." She finally said and Genma's head quickly turned to meet her gaze. "If I find a cure I'll tell you but- not this time."

"Don't be stupid boy. You wouldn't make it three days without me there."

"If you want to go, you go by yourself." Attempting to walk around the side of Genma caused him to move in the way again. "Do you remember what I asked you before we came here?"

"Hmm no."

"I wanted to know why we weren't looking for something permanent and you cared more about trying to marry me off. You're not serious about getting changed back for good." She stared into her father's eyes and actually made him wilt from the force of her glare. "I am."

Seeing that her father had been put in his place about inviting himself along, she couldn't resist giving one last shot. "Here I thought you'd be happy, now you get to spend all the time you want with her." She snorted lightly and left the doorway to head to the kitchen.

"I won't have you talking to me like that boy." Genma stormed out of the room to follow her. "I'm your father and you will respect me." Jumping in front of her, the elder Saotome crossed his arms, and blocked her path.

"Wasn't it you who said I should get used to being a tiefling? How am I supposed to respect you?" Ranma smirked. "I'm sure you know what Succubae think of men."

She saw the fist coming and had time to avoid it but she took the full blow to the left side of her jaw without attempting to move. There was a sharp flash of pain and then she found herself sliding backwards on the floor before coming to a stop. Picking herself up into a sitting position, she licked at her lips, and tasted blood.

"Did I hit a nerve?" One side of her mouth curled up into a smirk.

"You need to learn some respect boy." Genma answered her through gritted teeth.

"What's going on?" Michiko asked from behind her.

"Maybe it'll be good for you to see what the real world is like- on your own." The elder Saotome took a very deep breath before heading off down the steps. Ranma shook her head and licked at her lip again.

"Ranma, what happened?" Michiko spoke up again, kneeling down next to her.

"I think our dear old man has finally admitted to himself how much mom cares for him." Ranma turned her head just enough to look at her sister.

"You're hurt!"

"It's nothing, probably just bit my lip." She waved off Michiko's concern. "He doesn't hit hard enough to cut me."

"He hits you?" Michiko gasped again in shock.

"He likes to think he can." Rising to her feet, she rolled her eyes at Genma. 'Who does he think he is? After everything I did for him when he was stuck as a bear he asks me that?' Fuming, her hands clenched repeatedly in remembrance of everything she had gone through before Jusenkyo.

"Why do you stay here if he abuses you?" The dark haired tiefling asked, clearly concerned, and still inspecting Ranma's face. "Look what he did to your face."

"It's just a cut lip." Ranma rolled her eyes. "And don't worry, next time he wants to spar I'll knock him around a lot worse."

"You fight each other often?" The look on Michiko's face became even more horrified. "What a horrible man." The girl's black eyes turned a dark glare at the way Genma had left. "But why would you ever want to fight him? You could get scarred or worse!"

"I'm not worried about that." Ranma motioned for Michiko to follow her down the steps so she could go test Jusenko one more time.

"Why not?" The black haired girl took a step away and gave her a dubious look. "You don't- like pain do you?"

"What? No! Bruises, cuts, broken bones are all things you just gotta live with." Entering the kitchen, she headed right for the wash basin. "You don't enjoy it." Ranma admitted to herself that there were times where a little pain was a good thing.

"I really don't like that you two fight." Michiko fidgeted with her fingers.

"It's not really fighting, it's sparring, practice."

"That was practice upstairs? Him striking you?"

"No that was something else." Cranking the hand pump, cool water started to pour into the basin, and she splashed herself in the face with a large handful. "Just forget about it."

For a brief moment she thought it was going to work as a tingle shot through her body from the top of her head to the hooves she currently stood on. She felt it for only a few seconds before it quickly faded away into nothing. 'Guess it's not going to work again.' Closing her eyes, she tried to memorize exactly how it had felt to be male so she wouldn't lose it. 'I will be a man again.' She promised herself.

X x x x x x

Settling down on the uncomfortable futon, Michiko let out a long breath and stared at the ceiling. She was wearing thicker garments for what would probably be her last night here. Shivering as she adjusted herself and came into contact with cool parts of her blanket, she decided that it would be the last. Her reason for being here was to get to know her sibling and maybe her father if he caught her interest. Unfortunately he had turned out to be a brute who would attack Ranma under the guise of training and Ranma was leaving on a trip.

Hearing a commotion downstairs through the floor she was about to get up and see if more violence was occurring but it quickly stopped only to be followed by a quick shout from Ranma that she didn't make out. 'Ranma is so strange, stays here with a violent bear man over mom.'

"What a moron." Ranma snorted as she entered the room, looking completely disgusted about something.

"Did something happen?" She asked, sitting up slightly in bed while keeping herself wrapped up in the blanket.

"Pop just fell through a wall because he's drunk." The red haired girl answered and began stripping out of her clothing.

Seeing the mostly nude form of he sibling, she felt a slight pang of jealousy at the figure that had been hidden behind such baggy clothes. Give Ranma a few years and a little bit of height and she would probably rival most Succubae for looks. Michiko on the other hand would always look plain. She also felt a moment of resentment towards someone who would throw that away to be a man.

Ranma paused in the process of putting on pajamas when she noticed that Michiko had been looking at her. "What?"

"Nothing." Shifting her wings around, she dropped back down on the bedding, and twisted on to her side with a little smile on her face. Ranma may have questioned her reason for looking but hadn't objected and was comfortable enough to simply undress in front of her.

"Ya nothing." Ranma said sarcastically. "So what's your angle?"

"Angle?" Picking her head up, she gave her sibling a confused stare.

"You have to have some extra reason for why you're here. I don't really believe for a second that you came here to see her and then decided that you would spend all your time here." Ranma was now fully clothed in a set of red baggy flannel pajamas and she sat down on her own bedding. Michiko could see Ranma's wings and tail clearly so they were probably modified in some way to fit the form. "So tell me what you want so I can tell you yes or no."

"Um." Propping herself up with her elbow, she cocked her head to one side. "Am I supposed to have some secret reason for doing things?" She asked.

"So then why did you decide to stay here?"

"I wanted to get to know my-." She paused, looking Ranma up and down. "Okay I'm not going to call you my brother when you're like that anymore. I'm just not, sorry if it bothers you but- whatever. I wanted to get to know my sister. What's wrong with that?"

Ranma didn't say anything for several minutes, sitting on her bedding, and looking at her lap. Michiko wondered if she had said something wrong when Ranma left the room and she was even more confused when her sibling returned carrying a very large blanket. Briefly the red head checked to see that the two futons were touching, and then draped the extra blanket over both.

"You said you were cold last night." Ranma told her as she climbed under the covers. "I kind of was too. But just stay over on your side, alright?"

"Alright." She tried not to smile too much as she shifted herself over to be closer to Ranma before settling in. 'I guess I said the right thing.'

X x x x x x

Favian's eyes slowly opened and he sat up to a sitting position on his bed. His orange eyes scanned the dark room until he was able to focus on a tall figure draped in darkness. Reaching out a hand towards a candle, Favian snapped his fingers, and a flame erupted on the wick. Even though the room was now dimly lit, the figure remained in the shadow.

"I'm too old to deal with games. State your business." He pulled himself out from underneath the covers and stood up. Grabbing his robe that hung on a nearby hook, he wrapped it around himself.

"I am here to deliver a message." The figure spoke in a deep voice.

"You pick a fine time to do so." Snapping his fingers once again, the myriad of candles around the room were all lit at once.

"There is one more airship arriving to bring supplies here for the winter. On it will be a young tiefling, you will know her on sight. She is seeking a cure for something that cannot be cured by mortals. What you can do is give her guidance, teach her to use her great strength."

"And why should I do this? Why do I care about this girl?"

"You need not care, only to do, and she is not to know of this meeting." The figure's form quickly melted into the last few shadows that hung around it and was gone.

"I'll be the judge of that." Rubbing at his chin briefly, he waved his right hand, and the candles flickered out.

X x x x x x

Author Notes

1 - Certain points on the mortal plane act as natural areas of accumulation for magical energy. In the case of Lutansk, an academy was established there because the students can freely use neutral magic without exhausting the ambient supply. These places are generally well mapped out and are under some form of control to stop dangerous entities from using them as inexhaustible sources of power for their dark desires.

2 - A bag of holding enchantment. The enchantment works by compressing an area of space to fit within a smaller area. A connection is made with normal space at the opening to the bag. Because these compressed spaces are not in the same wavelength as normal reality they are weightless. This is a very high level enchantment and such these bags are usually very expensive.

3 - Nabiki isn't very good at telling if people are lying or not.


	7. Crossing Land

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

X x x x x x

Reaching behind her back and grabbing the flask attached to the side of her pack, Ranma unscrewed the cap and took a long drink of the cool water inside. Reattaching it to her new pack, shaped like a cylinder and sitting sideways on her lower back, she glanced at Kasumi who was struggling to keep up with her pace. They had taken several breaks during the day on top of the one for lunch. Kasumi caught her look at gave her a reassuring if strained smile.

"Want to stop here for the day?" Ranma suggested. They were following the most direct road that would take them through one small town before they finally reached Yuresti and could take the airship. There was little scenery to look at other than the trees that lined the road so it was a very boring trip so far.

"Sure." The Eldest Tendo sister answered gratefully.

X x x x x x

Earlier

Checking her new backpack one more time, Ranma glanced at Kasumi who was writing down instructions for Akane to follow when dealing with the garden. Soun had apparently cried himself out of water and was now passed out. Which was good because now they could get things done instead of dealing with the overly emotional man. This put Ranma in a better mood overall since she found his antics disgusting. She had already been close to yelling at him to be a man this morning before he finally shut down.

"Kasumi, I can remember to keep them watered." Akane protested after seeing Kasumi's thorough instructions.

"I'm sure you can." The dragon tiefling nodded absently before forcing Akane to take note which she had carefully folded. "I also wrote down the name of someone who can come and recast the spells to keep the home heated." (1)

Since none of this had to do with her, Ranma checked to make sure her sword was attached correctly before leaving to fill up her canteen. She had some reservations about leaving the Tendo home. None of the places she had ever stayed with Genma had been an actual home, just temporary residences, and they didn't have the same feel to them because they weren't lived in. One of her instructors growing up had said there was a name for the effect but it had been dealing with magic and she had ignored it for the most part.

Hearing a knock at the front door, Ranma was momentarily confused on how someone would be able to make it to the door without being noticed because a chime would go off anytime someone passed through the main gate. Quickly she realized exactly who was standing behind the door because the one who had made the enchantment on the gate had made a simple mistake. The mistake being that it only noticed races from the mortal plane. Briefly Ranma considered if she should simply ignore Nodoka before deciding it was best to just get it over with.

"Good morning." Nodoka greeted after Ranma had opened the door. "I like those clothes, much more flattering than the rags you usually wear."

"Why are you here?" Ranma asked while ignoring the comment about the clothing Michiko had picked out.

Her sister had insisted on seeing her in them before leaving and Ranma had thought it only right considering she had bought it. The tunic was a forest green reaching to mid-thigh with some subtle gold designs at the sleeves and along the collar. The neckline only plunged down a short distance below her clavicle and could open further with two buttons that provided the needed space in order for Ranma to get the tunic on over her horns. Simple black pants with ties at the ankles and a black belt tied at her waist over the tunic completed the outfit. Her wings exited the back through two slits cut in the right spots and her tail poked through a hole in the back of the pants and through the tunic. Both items were sized to this forms proportions and she had to admit that she looked good.

"I heard from Nabiki that you were leaving, may I come in?"

"When did you talk to her?" She stepped aside to let the demon come in.

"We met yesterday afternoon in the market." Nodoka explained pleasantly, removing her shoes, and heading into the home. "So Jusenkyo no longer works and you are going to Lutansk. I thank you for not dragging Michiko on your errand. Though I doubt you could have gotten her to go anyways."

"I'm not interested in your opinion on this." Ranma would deal with Nabiki for this when she had the time. She had to stop when Nodoka quickly turned around to look at her.

"Although I'm sure you would have kept her safe." The succubus took a step closer. "Perhaps you would hear my opinion on something else."

"What?" Ranma furrowed her brow in confusion and recoiled slightly as Nodoka leaned in and dropped her voice a whisper.

"If you're going to charm someone, it's best to suggest things that they want."

"What do you mean?" Ranma asked in confusion.

"Don't be obtuse, it's a very special time in a young girl's life when she finds her charm."

Ranma moved back away from her mother before reigning in her surprise. "How did you know about that?" Immediately she wanted to kick herself for basically admitting to being able to charm people now.

"A mother knows." The red head said proudly but with a sad smile on her face. Ranma felt a sudden hitch to her chest at Nodoka's gaze and had to turn away. (2)

"I'll be happy when I can never do it again." Ranma finally said after standing in awkward silence for several seconds. 'Why can't she just be sorry?'

"Will you?"

"Of course I will." She scoffed at the suggestion. "I'll have my real body back."

Nodoka glanced away from her down the hall towards the living room. "You don't have to seek a way back. You don't have to stay on this plane. I know that your little sister would love it if you came to live with our family, I－ would love to have you say that you are part of my house. You have options－ why run off on what is assuredly a fool's errand?"

Ranma felt another kick to her chest and stared off into space thinking about what her mother had just said. Nodoka worked in temptation and Ranma admitted to herself that the idea was tempting. The problem was that she would have to throw away who she was, become what Nodoka had tried to mold her into. "I do have options－ and I chose to take the only one I can live with."

X x x x x x

"Ranma?"

"Huh?" Breaking out of her memory of this morning, Ranma looked up from her small plate of cold food to Kasumi. "What is it?"

"You were staring at the fire for a long time."

"Sorry, just had some things on my mind." Picking at her food, she really wasn't all that hungry anymore. Not that she had been that hungry to begin with. It was one of the few things she liked about this body, unless she went out of her way to expend all her magic, she could get by without much to eat.

"I couldn't tell." Kasumi said sarcastically. "You haven't said more than five words to me all day. I know I'm slowing you down but please don't take it out on me."

"Sorry－ again." Setting her plate down on the ground next to her, she adjusted the coat she had put on to ward off the chill. The night was going to be cold and the small fire she had made was barely keeping it at bay. 'Good thing I brought a pair of socks or my feet would be freezing too.' Pepa was enjoying the night, dancing in and out of the flame completely unconcerned about the heat or cold. "What was your mom like?"

"My mom?" The other tiefling asked, also wearing a coat, and having less of an issue with the cold. "Why do you ask?"

"Guess I just want to know how messed up mine is."

"I see." Kasumi sat in silence for a moment. "She was－ I think patient would be the best way to describe her." Pausing again, the eldest Tendo sister pursed her lips briefly. "Akane was always getting hurt somehow and it has always stuck with me how she was able to handle it without ever raising her voice or panicking. She just had this way of dealing with things that I've always tried to emulate."

"Akane is a klutz." Ranma added after noticing that Kasumi was distracted by something.

"Since I've said something about my mother, why don't you say something about yours?"

"Her? You've met her." She scoffed at the question.

"And I don't think that you would have cared about her if she behaved like that in private. So come on, tell me what she's really like."

"I guess." Blowing out a breath, she looked skyward at the stars. "I can't say anything about her actually. So much of it could have been just because she was charming me. But mostly she just wanted to talk. Hear about my day, discuss something she saw, just－ talk." Ranma stared off over the fire where Pepa had stopped dancing in and out of. "I liked that."

"Are moms a good thing?" Pepa asked while flying up to Kasumi.

"Of course." Kasumi answered the spell creature.

"Why?" The fairy drawled. "She hates her mother." Pepa pointed to Ranma. "And yours went away. So what's so good about them?"

"Ranma?" The dragon tiefling turned to her. "Shouldn't you answer this?"

"Me? Why? I don't even think she listens to me." Ranma asked quickly before getting the hint from Kasumi's look. "She is not my kid. She's just a thing, she doesn't need to eat, or sleep, and I'd rather not think about other things she might do or not do. Honestly I'm surprised she can talk."

"Don't be so cruel." Kasumi gave her a horrified look.

"She's just a meanie." Pepa crossed her arms and glared at Ranma angrily.

"Alright that was a little mean." Ranma admitted. "But she's some kind of banishment spell. Would you be defending her if she banished you from this plane?"

"I would never do that to Kasumi!" Pepa protested, latching on to Kasumi's shoulder protectively.

"You tried to do it to me." She pointed out. "More than once."

"And you should apologize for that." Kasumi shook a disapproving finger at Pepa. "Maybe this could be a fresh start between you two."

Grimacing at Kasumi's expectant look, Ranma glanced at Pepa who was wearing a similar look, and sighed. "Alright, I'm sorry that I'm－ mean to you." She tried to keep her face impassive but could not stop the tip of her tail from flicking irritably.

"But." Pepa whined and found no support from Kasumi. "Fine." The fairy pouted. "I'm sorry I tried to banish you." She said quickly.

"Don't you feel better now?" Kasumi asked happily.

'Perfectly wretched.' Ranma blanched. "I'm going to go get some more firewood." She suggested before Kasumi could try to get her to explain things to Pepa some more.

X x x x x x

"Wow Akane, this actually looks edible." Nabiki smirked at the foul look her younger sister directed at her. This was hopefully a complete turnaround for Akane and she would soon be as competent of a cook as Kasumi. Unfortunately she held out little hope for that and if her younger sister hadn't been replaced by someone who could cook, Nabiki would be getting her food elsewhere.

"Would you at least try it before you insult me?" Akane fumed.

"Kasumi's gone." Soun sniffled, still dead to the world.

"Well, dig in." Akane smiled in an overly pleasant manner and Nabiki grimaced at the threat her younger sister was hiding behind that smile.

"I never wanted to be eighteen anyways." She shrugged and took a small bite of her death. Immediately her taste buds rebelled at the intrusion and it took all her willpower to swallow. Slowly setting down her chopsticks, she pushed the plate away from her.

"Do you want to cook tomorrow?" Genma asked her, having had his mouth similarly violated by Akane's attempt at making food.

"I don't cook." She answered haughtily. Domestic duties were beneath her, she was a high class girl, and she would eventually marry a wealthy guy with a crew of servants that she could wrap around her little finger.

"I'll have you know I used a special recipe." Akane said in a huff. "Ranma gave it to me."

"Ranma?" Nabiki asked in confusion.

"Yea, even told me about some special mushrooms Kasumi had in the garden."

"Um－ Akane, the only mushrooms Kasumi had in her garden were the age changing ones." Nabiki pointed out.

"Oh." Akane dug into a pocket on her apron and pulled out a small note. "In that case, I wish I would have followed the note on the back about making sure Uncle Genma ate it first." Nabiki was about to berate her sister for being so stupid when she felt the strange feeling of her heart giving off a single heavy thump. (3)

X x x x x x

Shifting around in sleeping bag, Kasumi fretted over how cramped the tent was with two people. She had been concerned when Ranma had first set it up, but now trying to sleep in it, she couldn't help but be nervous over Ranma's proximity. She was also too hot because Ranma had thrown an extra blanket on over top of them after complaining about how cold it was. Up above them, Pepa was glowing softly in a makeshift hammock hanging from a hook in the center of the dome formed by the tent. A hammock that Kasumi thought was just the cutest thing ever.

"Um, Pepa." Kasumi started after noticing the spell creature watching both her and Ranma like a hawk. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm making sure she doesn't radish you." The fairy announced.

"Radish?" Kasumi asked along with Ranma.

"Uh huh." Pepa nodded. "I heard the demon talking with the other infernal spawn about what happens on trips like this. She said that Ranma would radish you wildly. I need to protect you!"

"Pepa, a radish is a vegetable." Kasumi corrected.

"Really?" The fairy blinked owlishly in surprise.

"Yes, you eat a radish, so I don't know why you think Ranma would radish me."

"Eat? Oh! The demon said that Ranma might eat you out so that must have been it!"

"Ugh." Ranma groaned and dropped back to the ground.

Kasumi blushed lightly and laughed nervously. "Pepa that's not going to happen. I think you misheard Lady Nodoka."

"But I clearly heard her say that Ranma was going to Radish you, eat you out, something about clams, and some other things that I didn't really understand."

"Pepa, whatever it was Lady Nodoka said, it is not going to happen."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Alright." Pepa stopped to think briefly. "That's good because I didn't even think you had fur to bump."

"Ranma, your mother has a very－." Kasumi paused, wanting to say filthy mind but she didn't think it would be all that nice to be so blunt.

"It has nothing to do with me, she's the succubus, she likes that stuff, leave me out of it." Ranma said from underneath the blanket.

X x x x x x

Two and a half months ago

Ranma sat down on a wooden chair and let her tail dangle off to the right side. Across the table from her was Kinnosuke, her employer, and the attractive man in his early twenties was having a conversation with a puppet on his right hand. She rolled her eyes at his antics, the old man styled puppet acting as some kind of servant. Due to his bulk, Genma was sitting off to the side with Kinnosuke's money handler Shussemaru.

"So what can I do for you young miss?" Kinnosuke trailed off.

"You know who I am." She snapped, already having a long conversation just to get to this point. "The price went up."

"Lord Kinnosuke does not alter his pay outs." Kinnosuke told her with his puppet.

Ranma simmered and her wings stretched out slightly. "You didn't give me all the information. You said nothing about a magical trap." She wasn't going to give full disclosure on why she was a female tiefling but it was close enough to the truth.

"You should have known better." He answered flippantly and the doll nodded. "You two have been helping out my family for years and have gone into several more dangerous places. It's a risk that you accept when taking a job."

Stressed as she was, Ranma couldn't stop herself from exploding. Slamming both hands down on the table, the wood broke apart from the force, and she threw the remains to the side in order to advance on Kinnosuke. Grabbing him by the front of his tunic, she raised the much bigger man up off the ground. "Listen here; if you don't give me an extra twenty percent, I'm going to give in to the part of me that's saying to break every bone in your body." She growled.

"You'll never work for Lord Kinnosuke again!" The elderly puppet exclaimed.

"Five percent and I won't send someone to punish you for this little girl." Kinnosuke answered her demand.

"Fifteen and I won't kill whoever you send." She countered.

"Eight."

"Fifteen." She said once again and pulled back her right arm slowly before making a fist.

#We'll take eight# Genma involved himself in the negotiations with a sign and grabbed her arm in one of his paws.

"Eight? You idiot, do you know how much it's going to cost to find a cure?" She asked angrily. They had already talked to someone who charged them an arm and the leg just to check them out. The prognosis had not been a good one, they needed powerful magic to undo this, something that was going to cost a great deal of money.

"Shussemaru give them an extra eight percent." Kinnosuke instructed the money handler. "Don't come back."

Taking the money, she left with her father, and headed back to the inn they were staying in. Genma lumbered into the room behind her and shut the door. Dropping to the floor, she purposely looked away from her father, and tried unsuccessfully to stop her tail from agitatedly lashing from side to side.

#What?# Genma wrote on a sign.

"Don't what me, we needed money." She snapped.

#And now we got it#

"No we don't. We shouldn't have even gotten this room. Bastard overcharged me as it is."

#Don't worry boy, everything will work out#

'When I kill somebody.' Everything grated on her nerves now. Alternating between anger and extreme depression, every day was a struggle, and there were times when it was almost crippling.

Glancing at her father as he sat down a short distance away, she knew that it was probably worse for him, stuck as an animal as he was. But it didn't seem like he minded all that much. Then again he wasn't the one who had to do everything. All he had to do was sit around and not draw too much attention. Which was basically what he had always done. The only thing that had changed was that Genma now wore a fur coat.

Tapping a finger against the floor, she waited for Genma to write something on a sign, or to do something that she could yell at him for. Eventually he would, it was inevitable considering Genma's long track record of doing something stupid. When it didn't come soon enough, she rose up off the floor, and headed to the door.

"I'm going out." She told him and left him to his own alone.

Going to a nearby bar, Ranma sat down heavily on a stool next to the bar, and ordered some food. Growing sick of her wings always hovering over her shoulders, she relaxed the muscles and let them hang. The man who had taken her order didn't recognize her at all. It didn't matter that she had been here dozens of times over the years. Growing depressed over that thought, she ordered something alcoholic. Holding the glass it came in up in front of her face, she thought about all the people she would have to reintroduce herself to if a cure wasn't found.

'To all the people who don't know this face.' Sighing, she took a sip of it and put it back down. The training she had for fighting while drunk had been all about drink really fast. At the moment Ranma just wanted to feel a pleasant buzz.

It didn't take long to finish off the food she had ordered when it finally arrived. Since it had taken nearly an hour, Ranma had finished off two drinks, and was about to order a third when a glass was set down in front of her before she could order.

"But I didn't order yet." She pointed out as a guy slightly older than her sat down next to her left.

"Forgive me for being so forward, but I assumed you wouldn't mind another." The boy explained. "Was I incorrect?"

"No, no I wanted another." She answered, slightly confused on why he had done so.

"I'm Mikado Sanzenin." He introduced before ordering something for himself.

"Ranma Saotome." She said after the bartender was away and wouldn't hear. Ranma wasn't interested in explaining her situation at the moment.

"A lovely name for a lovely creature."

Ranma snorted and took a large drink from the glass. "Just lemme alone."

"But I would feel bad not to know what has made you so sad."

"You ever had to walk around on hooves?" She asked.

"I can't say I have."

"Then I don't think you could relate." Sighing, Ranma hated that she lacked toes. Hooves threw off nearly all of her footwork to the point where she was often falling all over herself.

"My own problem is not so obvious. I was engaged until today." Staring sadly off into the space, the boy downed his entire drink in one gulp.

"Sorry to hear that." Ranma said without feeling at all sorry. Her own problems were so much worse than not being engaged.

"But it may be a good thing, she was such a bubble headed kleptomaniac. I spent most of my time returning things that she stole. Almost all my money went to paying for things she took."

"I know that feeling." Thoughts of a black and white bear entered her mind.

"Hmm?"

"That was my last good meal for a while. As sad as that sounds." Laughing to herself, she patted her stomach.

"It is sad, a young woman such as yourself should eat well."

"Young woman." Ranma snorted. She was a handsome young man and should never be confused with a woman. Attempting to pay for her food and drink, Mikado quickly paid for her.

"Save your money for another good meal." He said.

"Thanks." She raised an eyebrow and spun around on the stool to go to leave. 'Guess he's not so bad.' Planting her hooves on the floor, she almost fell over as soon as she had taken her hand off the bar. A strong arm quickly came out and caught her around the waist.

"Have too much?" Mikado asked in amusement as she regained her footing.

"Maybe." Ranma admitted to herself. Now that she wasn't sitting, her head was swimming, and the world wasn't holding still.

"Perhaps I should escort you back to your home." He suggested.

"It's just across the street." She finally got her balance and disengaged his arm.

"I insist."

"Suit yourself." Staggering a bit, she crossed the street, and had difficulty climbing the steps up to the second floor. 'Stupid girl body.' Ranma had never had trouble the few times she had drank before. "You can go now, this is it." She told Mikado who had followed her. Honestly it was nice to have some kind of normal contact with others. Maybe some other time she would have been friendlier, maybe she could even had been friends with Mikado. But she had other things on her mind.

"Then I am happy you have arrived safely." He announced almost grandly and Ranma was too out of it to avoid him as he leaned forward and wrapped an arm around her back. "You have gifted me with your company, I can only think to repay you with a kiss." Mikado's face was close to hers and he was staring deeply in her eyes.

'Uh what?' Ranma blinked several times, too stunned by the idea of someone wanting to kiss her to react. Staring back into his eyes as he leaned in, her hazy mind couldn't come up with reasons to stop him.

The kiss never happened because a wooden sign struck the boy in the side of the head and she was released. #Hands off!# Genma signed to Mikado and dragged her inside before closing the door.

"Pop? What are you doing?" She asked after stumbling into the room. It was hard to tell facial expressions on a bear face but Genma seemed to be sad about something.

#Just go to bed and sleep it off#

"I only had a little with dinner." She explained. Ranma wasn't about to say that she wanted to drown her problems for just one night and not have to think about what was done to her. "And I'll go to bed when I want to." She said in a huff.

X x x x x x

Genma found the worst part about his predicament to be just how boring it was. He could communicate with signs or actions but it wasn't like he was allowed anywhere. So he was relegated to sitting off to the side or being all alone while Ranma did all the work. Which normally would be great. He loved getting Ranma to do all the work. But shifting responsibilities was not the same as having to give up them all.

There were other issues that he had to deal with. Immediately after seeing what Ranma had been turned into, he had bolted due to his well-honed instincts of self-preservation. Genma had realized that the God had brought out Ranma's infernal heritage and he knew his son could be very violent. He didn't like to think about the scene that awaited him when he finally found Ranma again.

Since then he had seen some of Ranma's darker side come out. Threatening Kinnosuke earlier was just the latest example. Ranma was weaker physically but there was an edge to his son's anger that had never been there before. Genma had no doubt in his mind that if things continued then Ranma would do something regrettable.

One of his fuzzy ears twitched at a clacking noise that was coming down the hall outside. His sensitive nose picked up the scent of alcohol and he could hear Ranma talking to a young man outside. 'Repay with a kiss?' He thought nervously and was up and out the door in an instant. The sight that greeted him was both expected and shocking. Held within a young man's arms was Ranma. The slight red head peering owlishly into the eyes of the boy as he moved in to kiss her.

#Hands off!# He hastily scribbled on a wooden sign and smashed the teen with it in the head. Dragging Ranma inside before she could protest, he closed it behind him.

"Pop, what are you doing?" Ranma demanded drunkenly, staggering forward until she finally found her balance enough to stand in one spot.

#Just go to bed and sleep it off# He answered her demand with a sign.

"I only had a little with dinner." She protested before carefully dropping down to the floor. "And I'll go to bed when I want." She added petulantly.

'Is Ranma starting to accept being a girl?' He wondered, watching his only child fumble slightly with her sleeping bag. 'Or is it something to do with being part Succubus?' Either way he needed to keep his son his son. It shouldn't take too much longer to find a way back. What then though? Ranma had just burned their connection to the best source of income they had.

Even if they couldn't get changed back he needed to ground Ranma somehow. Just the other day Ranma had figured out that she could fly. Genma needed some way to keep his son from just flying off and doing whatever she pleased. There was the promise he made with his old training partner long ago. That might work to help stabilize Ranma's mood.

Listening as Ranma began to snore, he dropped down next to her, and patted his son on the shoulder. 'Don't worry boy, I'm sure it will work out.' Patting her small body once again, he pulled the blanket up to cover her better, and looked away. 'I know you wouldn't believe me but I am sorry and I guess I can try to be better.'

The only answer Ranma gave was a snort before she babbled something incomprehensible. Rubbing at the side of his head, Genma flopped down on his back. 'Ungrateful boy.'

X x x x x x

In the morning, Kasumi woke up at her usual early time to a strange sensation. It took her a moment to realize that Ranma had apparently moved over to wrap her arms around Kasumi's shoulders. Turning her head around, Kasumi found that Ranma had her head resting lightly on her back and was softly snoring. Feeling her face heat up slightly at the close contact, she tried to pull Ranma's arm's apart but this only caused the red head to tighten her grip, and mumble something.

Ranma's grip was like steel and she couldn't budge the two deceptively delicate arms at all. "Ranma?" She asked, nudging the girl's face with her shoulder.

"Michiko I told you I didn't want to cuddle." Ranma groaned and shifted her hips around slightly to fit against Kasumi's back better.

'Doesn't want to cuddle?' Kasumi mentally rolled her eyes and was happy that there were at least two layers of fabric between them. Glancing upwards to see if Pepa would be of some help, she found the fairy gone, no doubt having grown bored and wandered off to find something to keep her interest in the night. "Ranma, wake up." She said more forcefully.

"Muwah?" Ranma's grip loosened as the red head finally started to wake. "Sumi?" She asked sleepily and fully pulled away to lay on her back. "What is it?"

"Nothing." Kasumi answered now that she was no longer being bear hugged by a person who was capable of squeezing the life out of her with ease.

Ranma yawned and curled up on her side facing away from Kasumi. "I'm going back to sleep－ too early." And almost immediately the red head was snoring once again.

'It is kind of early.' Kasumi agreed after realizing that she had no reason to get up. While she would like enjoy the sunrise, their location within the forest made that impossible. 'I think you have the right idea.' She glanced at Ranma's sleeping form as the blanket rose and fell with each breath. 'Definitely the right idea.' Kasumi shifted herself to be more comfortable and tried to get some more sleep.

When next she woke, Kasumi heard shifting down near her feet, and sat up to find Ranma without a top. Her cursed fiancé was changing and was just finishing up tying the drawstring at the top of her pants. Kasumi was about to avert her eyes and give the red head some privacy until she noticed the tattoo over her left shoulder blade that was partially hidden by a wing.

"Morning." Ranma greeted cheerfully and glanced over her shoulder at Kasumi.

"Morning." She returned the greeting. "When did you get that?" It looked like a family crest of some sort but she had not seen it on Ranma's back when first meeting her fiancé in the bath. Maybe it was something Ranma had gotten while being manipulated by Nodoka?

"You mean this?" The other infernal twisted slightly to indicate the tattoo and Kasumi nodded. "Three times I've been put into slavery, the Drow were the first ones who really didn't want me getting away."

"Oh, can it be removed?"

Ranma paused and looked down. "The tracking enchantment they had on it was removed. Other than that I think I'll avoid Drow." The red head finished with a strained smile.

"At least it looks nice." Kasumi added to try and lighten the mood. "Um－ where's Pepa?" Ranma in response just pointed to her pack with the pocket that had something squirming inside of it. "Ranma." She chastised.

"What?" Ranma asked obliviously.

X x x x x x

Later that day

Ranma grimaced and pulled the hood of her coat tighter around her head. The day had not warmed up at all and had turned to a mix of rain of snow. It was all that she could do not to shiver uncontrollably as the wind bit into her even through the coat. Kasumi like earlier seemed less affected by the cold but was still having a miserable time. Being that there was little either of them could do, they simply pressed on towards Aebari, a small town that they would stay at briefly. Pepa had vanished sometime during the day and Ranma was thankful for the fairies absence.

Another thing to be thankful for was that they were almost to the town. Currently they were walking down a sloping path flanked on either side by fields, and with the town itself visible below. From what Ranma could see it was a main street with some shops, an inn, and that seemed to be it. She had been in plenty of villages like this one and held no excitement about it. Kasumi on the other hand was positively giddy to see the new sights.

Kasumi would have to wait on any exploration because the storm continued to pick up in intensity as they arrived in town on the dirt road. Ranma was having some difficulty moving through the mud with hooves and made for a long two story structure with a wooden sign hanging over the door proclaiming it to be the Morning Dove Inn. They passed several covered carriages to get to the door and the sounds of horses being tended to around the side of the building. Tossing back her hood upon entering, she scanned the large dining hall and bar that made up the entrance to the inn.

This must have been the most popular place in town because it was almost full. Mostly humans but Ranma was a little surprised to see a group of four dwarves camped out a table drinking from large mugs. She couldn't be sure if they were all men or even all women. Dwarves tended to have similar body types between the sexes and the women often had beards just as large as the men. Most occupants were spread out in small groups talking amongst themselves while eating or drinking but there was a group of a dozen humans in one corner with several tables pulled together. Ranma figured that this was the group with the wagons outside.

Her eyes lingered on the group and her noise picked up a strangely familiar scent as the smell of sizzling batter had filled the room. Working over a griddle spread out on the table was a teen boy that Ranma recognized from somewhere. She was so engrossed in trying to figure out how she knew this person that she nearly missed the small pause that rippled through the patrons upon noticing a pair of tieflings entering.

'Who is he?' Ranma asked herself. Looking down at what the boy had been preparing, she noticed that it was an okonomiyaki, a food that was only prepared in isolated pockets on this continent. "Ukyo?" Things clicked when she saw the small spatulas holstered on a bandolier hanging across the boy's chest and the much large one hanging off his back.

"Did you say something?" Kasumi asked but Ranma ignored her to dash over to the table.

"Ukyo?" Ranma asked excitedly, almost bouncing up and down.

"Uh－ that's my name, how'd you know that?" The brown haired teen asked.

"It's me, Ranma." She leaned back when the large and sharp edge of the spatula that had been strapped to the boy's back immediately founds it's way to almost touch her nose. "You have to be!" She announced happily and had bounded over the table to land next to her childhood friend and patted him on the back. "How have you been? I haven't seen you for years."

"Don't play games with me!" Ukyo attempted to jab her in the stomach with the handle of the spatula but Ranma avoided it by moving to the side. Ranma wasn't able to avoid the sideways swipe that Ukyo turned his jab into was pinned against the wooden wall.

"Ha ha you got me!" Ranma's laughed good-naturedly even when a smaller spatula that found its way to her throat. "You know if you keep this up I'm going to think that you actually want to hurt me."

"No fighting!" A man behind the bar yelled.

"Where is he?" Ukyo asked dangerously. "Tell me where Ranma is."

She opened her mouth to say that Ukyo was looking at Ranma and stopped. 'Uh oh, how did I forget? Quick Ranma think!' None of the assembled crowd was making any move to get into her reunion with her childhood friend but the man behind the bar did not look happy. Scrambling to figure out what to do, Ranma decided to just go with it. They were very young at the time and it would have been very easy to not tell someone's gender.

"I'm Ranma, like I said." She answered.

"The Ranma I know is a black haired human boy and you are neither." Ukyo explained and Ranma fumbled for a response.

"Excuse me, but why are you fighting?" Kasumi asked while trying to give Ukyo a disarming smile. "Maybe we could discuss things in a more civil manner?"

Ukyo looked deep in thought as he weighed his options before he holstered the two spatulas to his chest and back. "I guess I can find out who she is without beating her up."

'Okay, think Ranma think.' There was a table off to the side that Ukyo claimed with a small amount of intimidation to the man who had been sitting there. 'You really stepped into it this time. Idiot, you look nothing like you did when you were little.' Sitting down along with Kasumi across from Ukyo and a girl who was accompanying the okonomiyaki chef, Ranma was able to come up with something that would hopefully be believable.

"Well?" Ukyo asked expectantly.

"I'm Ranma Saotome." She answered, hoping that Kasumi wouldn't try to correct anything.

"The only Ranma Saotome that I know was a black haired boy I met when I was six." Ukyo answered. "And, no offense to you." The boy nodded to Kasumi. "But he was not a tiefling."

"But that was me." Ranma almost wished that her wings weren't being held in place by her coat so she could make them droop. "Puberty－ really sucked." Dropping her head to the table, she fidgeted with her fingers nervously.

"Puberty? Ha! Never heard of puberty changing someone's sex." Ukyo laughed at Ranma's display. "And I would have noticed a tail."

"Who said it did?" Ranma asked irritably, trying to keep up the act. "Didn't you know I was a girl?"

"You can't be a girl."

"I can assure you, Ranma is definitely a girl." Kasumi added.

'Thank you Kasumi.' She was happy to have someone who could actually take a hint traveling with her.

"That's not possible." Ukyo answered.

"Why?" The girl at Ukyo's side asked. Ranma was a slightly confused over the signals she was getting from the girl. A bit taller than normal and slightly masculine but nothing that detracted from her beauty. She was dressed in one of the local kimonos with her black haired tied up in a high ponytail by a red ribbon.

"Because I was supposed to be engaged to him." Ukyo asked and crossed his arms.

"Say what now?" Ranma asked in confusion.

"Excuse me?" Kasumi added a half beat later.

"That slime Ranma and his father took my families food cart as a dowry and left me on the side of the road." He explained angrily.

'What the? Not even Pop would have done that.' Ranma came to a quick realization a moment later. "You're not a boy."

"I only dress as one. After they left I was so embarrassed that I threw away my femininity, and vowed to get revenge on the ones who did it." Ukyo balled her hands up into fists. "Completely useless revenge."

"Oh my how terrible." Kasumi held a hand over her mouth. "But it sounds like you were both mistaken."

"Uh ya." Ranma supported Kasumi's line. "I mean, you thought I was a guy and I thought you were a guy." She resolved to give Genma a major beating the next time she saw him for this.

"A mistake isn't going to give back all the years of my life that I wasted back." Ukyo spat and stood up roughly. "Just stay away from me." The cross-dressing girl stormed away from the table back towards the group she had been with and gathered up all her things before heading out of the room. The girl who had been with Ukyo looked back and forth in worry before hurrying after the chef.

"Are you sure that was a wise thing to do?" Kasumi whispered to her.

"I don't know." Ranma turned in her seat to watch her childhood friend. A friend that Genma had wronged horribly ten years ago.

"It's a little late but I'm sure if you would have just explained the situation."

"What then?" Ranma interrupted her fiancée. "What difference would it make? He－ she would still hate me."

X x x x x x

Kasumi had finally been able to secure a seat next to a window in the front of the inn and was now able to look out at the small town. Sure it wasn't the best view and the rain made it slightly depressing but this was why she was here, to see the world. Ranma had retired to the room they had rented for the night, still upset over the reunion with a childhood friend. Kasumi was worried about that and Pepa was still missing but the spell construct seemed impervious to all damage and at the very least could track Ranma down if she got lost.

Propping her head up with her right hand, her thoughts turned to Ranma and that Ukyo girl. It would be strange to come up with something like that as a lie so she assumed that Genma had in fact engaged Ranma twice. Why would he do that though? Genma had seemed to take the engagement between the Tendo and Saotome families reasonably seriously. Kasumi knew that the Tendo arrangement originated around the time that she was born so the one with Ukyo was years later.

"Excuse me?"

Kasumi looked away from the window to the girl who had been with Ukyo earlier. She stood next to the table demurely with her head down. "Yes?"

"Would you mind if I sat down?"

"No, go ahead." She sat up a little straighter. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"My name is Konatsu and I work for Lady Ukyo." The girl bowed her head politely.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Kasumi Tendo."

"Lady Ukyo is very dear to me and I owe her very much. Ever since I met her she has been driven to find your friend to get revenge. I fear that it was all she was living for."

'Maybe Ranma's ruse is a good thing.' She thought, imagining that there may have been a big fight if Ranma had been honest about the situation. "I don't believe that Ranma actually knew anything about the engagement." She added to herself that her fiancée better not have.

"I don't either and I want to see Lady Ukyo happy again."

"So what do you suggest?" Kasumi wasn't good at plotting anything, having avoided any sort of planning for fear that old prejudices against tieflings may come out.

"Here's what I had in mind."

X x x x x x

Ignoring the soft clacking of her hooves on the rock floor, Ranma trailed a hand along the wall to keep her bearings as she moved through the cave. The only light she could make out was a slight glow coming from the front, the same direction a foul breeze was hitting her from. Covering her mouth and nose with her left hand, she fought back the urge to vomit from the stench. Glancing back, she considered turning around but found that the blackness of the cave had swallowed up her path and there was no way back.

Each step felt like she was drudging through mud and as she neared the only source of light a heavy and oppressive feeling slowly weighed her down. Suddenly the wind changed direction and it almost felt like she was being pulled towards the light. Before she reached the end of the tunnel the wind had changed directions several times and as she neared it grew to be so intense that she was nearly picked up off her feet. Drawing closer, the overpowering stench of decay was joined by an acrid sulphur one.

The tunnel ended and was connected to a dome hundreds of meters in diameter. With her heart thundering in her chest, she walked out on a path that continued out towards the center. Underneath the rock bridge was the source of the light, a pit filled with lava. Waterfalls of lava haphazardly placed around the dome fell down to splash noisily in the molten rock.

Stopping, she could make out figures carved in the wall. Humanoid shapes overlapped one another, posed in positions of absolute agony. The faces were all detailed and seemed to shift in the changing light from the lava. Unable to look away, the figures started to move, twisting and shoving at one another.

"Stop it!" She yelled and dropped to her knees covering her eyes. The wind picked up suddenly and hit her with enough force to knock her over. Painfully loud squeals accompanied it and she shuffled over to brace herself against a rock. A single heavy impact bounced her up into the air briefly before the wind hit her with enough force to send her tumbling across the floor.

Opening up her eyes, she struggled to her feet on shaky legs. The wind hit her again and her wings accidently caught it nearly throwing her around once again. A deep rumbling made everything shake and vibrate sending chunks of the ceiling plunging down into the lava. Briefly the air stilled before violently the lava churned and started to explode in geysers to splash against the walls.

"Alive or dead." A voice too deep to come from any mortal commanded. "All are mine." Something impacted the bridge and a chunk near the middle broke free. "COWER!"

Ranma was crushed to the rock by a monstrously large set of claws. Dazed, she looked upwards to see a scaled head descending towards her with the mouth open wide a moment before it snapped closed.

X x x x x x

Screaming, Ranma ripped her sleeping bag in half as she was up and into the corner of the room in an instant. Her chest heaved as she took quick panicked breaths, eyes darting around the room unable to focus or make out the objects around her in the dark.

"Ranma? Ranma what's going on?" Kasumi asked in confusion. In the dark room Ranma couldn't see anything until Kasumi had stepped off the bed and created a light spell. Her eyes caught sight of the light glinting off the scales of Kasumi's tail and she nearly tore her way through the wooden wall. "Calm down, it's just me." The other tiefling gripped her by the shoulders.

"Kasumi?" Ranma asked, her eyes refusing to focus, and she had to shield them from the light.

"Yes, what's going on? You must have woke half the inn."

"I－." Gulping, she struggled to recall why exactly she had been freaking out. "I can't remember. It was－ I guess it was nothing."

"You sure?"

"Yea." She answered and nodded her head weakly.

"Alright, if you say so." Kasumi frowned uncertainly.

"Really." She rushed Kasumi back to the bed before returning to her ruined sleeping bag. 'Oh man this is going to take forever to sew up.' It had split down the seam on one side completely while tearing partially on the other. Catching Kasumi staring at her worriedly she tried to smile reassuringly, the nightmare that had woken her up slipped further away the more she tried to think about it.

Hearing someone knocking on doors and asking questions in the hall, Ranma felt her face heat up, realizing that she had woken people up. 'Oh please just go away, please just go away.' She wanted whoever was checking to just ignore the room with the two tieflings and go back to bed. Kasumi seemed to have other ideas and went to the door and opened it. The owner of the inn was at the door with a lamp in one hand.

"There was a scream, I'm just checking to find out what's going on." He said and glanced around the small room.

"That was just Ranma, she has night terrors." Kasumi answered.

"Kasumi!" Ranma was up and at her fiancées side in an instant. "I don't have night terrors."

"I'm sorry I really should have warned you about it but she hasn't had them in some time and it slipped my mind." The eldest Tendo sister explained.

"Well alright. Just keep it down. I thought someone had a mandrake." He looked between them suspiciously before heading back down the hallway.

"Why did you say that?" She asked as soon as the door closed.

"I thought it was a good explanation." Kasumi answered with a shrug.

"Yea well－." Ranma's anger evaporated. The only reason she was up in arms about it was that it made her look bad. "That guy is going to go around telling everybody that I scream at night."

"I'm telling your mom you said that." Pepa greeted as she suddenly appeared in front of her. Ranma gave a brief scream before jumping behind Kasumi.

"Pepa you're back, where have you been?" Kasumi asked.

"I don't know." The fairy admitted. "Are we there yet?"

"No you little nuisance!" Ranma grabbed Pepa and started to shake her around violently. "Don't jump out at people like that!" She stopped when someone started to bang on the wall next to them.

"Shut up I'm trying to sleep!" A gruff male voice called through the wall. Various voices of agreement came from other rooms.

X x x x x x

Adjusting the straps on her pack, Ranma slowly looked at where Kasumi was pointing, her bleary eyes having difficulty coming to terms with what was being presented. Ukyo and her party were checking their carriages as the horses were being hooked up to the front. It was no longer raining but dark clouds still covered the sky and were threatening to start a downpour once again.

"Um－ what?" She asked, far too tired to really think this through. Sleep had eluded her till up until only two hours ago and Kasumi had woken her up and practically dragged her outside.

"Ukyo's friend Konatsu said we could ride with them to Yuresti. Wasn't that nice of her?" Kasumi explained with a happy smile.

"You should go Kasumi, make her walk." Pepa spoke up from a position on Kasumi's shoulder.

Ranma frowned at the carriages. Having always walked due to Genma claiming it was good training, she had only been in a carriage a handful of times in her life, and most of those were while being put into slavery. Never would she admit to any kind of phobia about being in a cramped box, unable to control where you were going, sitting on some uncomfortable bench or floor. She would have gone on listing her objections to taking a carriage but Kasumi interrupted her.

"Ranma you shouldn't grind your teeth."

"Good morning Lady Kasumi." The same girl Ranma had seen with Ukyo last night came up to them.

"Good morning Konatsu." Kasumi replied.

"And good morning to you as well Lady Ranma, I'm sorry that our meeting last night was unpleasant." Konatsu greeted her as well.

"Just Ranma－ and good morning." She returned without enthusiasm. Ranma had nearly blurted out that she wasn't a lady but remembered her screw up from the night prior.

"Is that a fairy?" Konatsu asked Kasumi.

"This is Pepa." The dragon tiefling introduced. "She was created by a spell. Pepa, this is Konatsu."

"Hello." Pepa greeted excitedly and flew over to float in front of the girl's face.

"Greetings." Konatsu returned.

"Don't give her too much attention, she's a pest." Ranma interjected.

"Oh－ would you like for me to take your things?" Konatsu offered, looking mildly uncomfortable with Ranma's attitude.. "We'll be leaving in a few minutes."

"I should be able to carry it for just a bit longer." Kasumi answered with an attempt at humor.

"I'm fine." She responded much less politely and followed the girl to put her things in the third carriage from the front before going to sit in the second. It wasn't a passenger carriage but one designed for cargo. It had been converted to have wooden bench seats running along the sides. The covering to it was a thin burlap material that was enchanted in some way to keep any lingering rain from going through. Ranma had wanted to sit near the back but was pushed in by Kasumi who sat down next to her, subtly blocking her in.

The drape blocking off the driver from the passengers was pulled back and a heavy set man with a thick shadow of stubble on his face peered inside. He gave both her and Kasumi a once over before frowning at Konatsu. "What's with the infernals?" He asked.

"A pair of unwanted stowaways." Ukyo snapped, sliding to a stop at the back gate after running up to it. "What are you doing here?"

"I invited them." Konatsu spoke up quickly.

"You did what?" Ukyo's anger evaporated.

"They're going in the same direction and we had extra room in our carriage." The girl explained.

"It's my carriage." The chef's earlier anger returned. "You have no right to invite random people."

"They're not random though, one of them is your childhood friend. I already said they could come, why can't they?" Konatsu pleaded.

"She's no friend of mine." Ukyo crossed her arms. "So get out."

"I mean no disrespect but I've already paid our fare, so it's not up to you." Kasumi told the chef.

"So that's who dropped the extra money." The driver snorted. "Whatever, as long as I get paid."

"I'll walk be walking then." Ukyo growled.

"I'll walk too." Ranma offered and quickly wormed her way past Kasumi's legs to get out of the carriage.

"Then I'll be riding." Ukyo hopped up into the carriage.

"Me too." She jumped up to sit across from her childhood friend.

"I'm not playing this game." Ukyo crossed her arms and looked to the side with a dismissive snort that brought her face to face with Pepa. "What is this thing?"

"I like that you don't like her." Pepa told Ukyo.

"And keep this away from me." The chef shoved Pepa into Ranma's hands.

"Don't give her to me." Ranma pushed the fairy over to Kasumi.

"Well if you don't want me around." Pepa said in a huff before she vanished with a soft pop.

"She should have done that a long time ago." She grumbled.

X x x x x x

Author Notes

1 - The Tendo home and most others are kept heated by a system of stones place strategically around the home that are given long term heat enchantments.

2 - Nodoka realized this by seeing that Ranma's eyes have a different look to them. Very subtle and unnoticeable except as what might be described as mysterious or alluring.

3 - Ranma can be just as mean, spiteful, petty, and jealous as Nodoka and Genma. In chapter five, Genma stole Ranma's food and he swore vengeance and vengeance he shall have!


	8. Through Dreams

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

X x x x x x

Biting greedily into some discarded food from a nearby trash bin, Ranma ignored that it was something she disliked, focusing only on how it was food. Pausing as she shoved her meal into her mouth, she brushed away some of her bangs that had fallen into her mouth. Soon she would have to find a blade to give herself a haircut. It was hard to remember how long she had been living on the street. Everything she owned had been stolen, Genma was gone, and the clothes on her back were all that was left.

Finished with her food, she curled her tail around her legs and stared out of the alley at the normal people walking down the street. Forcing back tears over how hopeless her situation was. It had to be close to half a year now since becoming cursed by the mad God. No one would give her a break, not a job, not a place to stay for the night, not even some decent scraps of food.

There was one source of income even a tiefling could secure that she had avoided but if she couldn't find some way out of this she would have to turn to prostitution. The allure of hot food and a warm place to sleep was becoming more appealing by the hour. What was there to lose? Her manhood? That had been stolen so long ago that she no longer remembered what it was like to be a man. Her dignity? The last scraps of that were smaller than the ones she picked out of the trash. Her health? Somehow she had avoided the ravages this kind of life should have brought on her body. Looking at the spade tip to her tail, she had deduced that she was part Succubus, which would explain why she was still healthy and willing to consider selling her body.

Why was she like this? Of all the infernals she could be mixed with, why a Succubus? How was a God able to create something infernal? That should have been impossible except if it was already there. Had she always been plane touched without knowing? There was clearly no point in seeking out any demons for assistance. Ranma's infernal heritage most likely came from an ancestor not a parent. And if she couldn't find compassion amongst mortals, what hope was there among infernals, even a parent she had never known.

Shivering as she used her hands to pull her wings tight around her body, Ranma tried to come up with another way to start putting her life back in order. Letting out a ragged breath she wondered what she had done to deserve this fate?

"You there."

Jerking at the male voice, she looked towards a man wearing a long black jacket that hid his body except for his head. "Why are you in this alley?" He asked, his dark eyes looking at her lustfully.

X x x x x x

Kasumi's patience was wearing thin with Ukyo. She was looking forward to when the caravan would stop for a rest so that she could get away from the ill-tempered chef. It wasn't that she didn't sympathize with the girl's bad lot in life but that didn't give justification to act so poorly towards others. Regardless of Ranma's lie, she was not the one who had wronged Ukyo.

Glancing downwards at the top of Ranma's head resting on her lap as she slept, Kasumi played with the bright red hair, and kept her mouth shut on the Ukyo issue. Her fiancé had fallen asleep shortly after the caravan had set out and had slowly crept her way closer and closer to Kasumi before ending up in this position. She was slightly concerned that Ranma may poke her with her horns but the redhead appeared to be sleeping peacefully so there shouldn't be any repeat of the previous night. Kasumi had initially been uncomfortable with Ranma's position but had grown comfortable enough to simply enjoy the contact with another person.

"So how do you two know each other?" Ukyo asked conversationally, losing much of her earlier sarcasm, but Kasumi assumed that the underlying distrust was still there.

"Our families have been friends for some time but I've only met Ranma recently."

"Demon lovers stick together?" The chef asked snidely.

Kasumi stiffened at the insult and didn't immediately respond to it. Next to Ukyo, Konatsu frowned but did not respond either. "If you are looking for a fight I'm not the type. My father and Ranma's were friends long before either of us were born. My father didn't know about our heritage until my birth and Ranma's mother was unknown to either of us until a month ago."

"A real half breed? Genma is more disgusting than I remember." Ukyo snorted.

"Lady Ukyo that's not a nice thing to say." Konatsu added.

"Genma ruined my life." Ukyo snarled at Konatsu. "And that mutt right there helped him do it."

"And should you be treated like garbage for the circumstances of your birth?" Kasumi asked, deciding that she had enough. "Ranma didn't ask to be like she is, neither have I, and if you spent five seconds to actually get to know her you would know that she would have had no hand in what Genma did to you."

In response to her outburst, Ranma moaned and shifted around. The red head quickly sat up and looked around as though she didn't know where she was before her blue eyes locked on to her. Kasumi never saw Ranma move but she could feel her ribs strain under the pressure the tiny girl suddenly put on them after latching on to her like a life preserver.

"I never wanted to." The girl sobbed into her chest. "I just wanted some food－ a place to sleep－ please don't make me do it again."

"Ranma." She squeaked, barely able to breath. "You were having another nightmare."

Ranma's grip immediately slackened and the girl backed away as much as the quarters would allow to stare at her like she was a stranger. "A nightmare?" The other tiefling asked, recognition quickly returning to her blue eyes. A deep blush enveloped Ranma's face in embarrassment. "Excuse me." She sat down and tried to appear composed even though Kasumi could see that she was still trembling.

"Do you remember what it was this time?" Kasumi would like to know what was causing Ranma to have these horrible dreams.

"No, not really." Ranma answered evasively.

"Can't even be honest with your friends?" Ukyo asked.

Kasumi gave the girl a dark look. "Is your life so empty that all you to do is be bitter about a misunderstanding from when you were six?"

"I haven't had a life since I was six." Ukyo answered, looking ready to assault her.

"Did I miss something while I was sleeping?" Ranma asked, glancing nervously between them.

"Maybe we should all just take a nice deep breath? Hmm?" Konatsu interrupted before pulling back the fabric dividing them from the driver. "Excuse me sir, when will we be stopping next?"

"I don't know－ not too long." He answered. "Just sit tight and try not to get too loud back there."

"Alright, thank you." Konatsu let the fabric fall back into place. "So－ Ranma, Lady Kasumi says that you are an adventurer. Do you have any interesting stories?"

"This is what adventurers do." Ranma answered. "Move from place to place."

"Oh come on, I'm sure you've gotten around." Ukyo remarked.

Ranma pursed her lips. "My last adventurer wasn't that long ago. I was with my old man and we were at a temple up on a hill to break up a cult. It was boring and routine till I destroyed a magic prison－." The redhead paused. "I freed a God and he took everything from me."

"What did he do?" Konatsu asked intent to hear more of Ranma's poorly told story.

"Something private." Ranma avoided answering the question. "Ukyo－ I understand completely why you hate me and I can never make it up to you."

Kasumi expected Ranma to say something more but the other tiefling retreated into herself and sat staring at the floor of the carriage. 'Sometimes I think I have more of a child than a fiancé.' She thought to herself.

X x x x x x

Ranma felt her face heat up at the thought of her outburst in the carriage. They had stopped to let the horses graze and rest while a lunch was prepared. She had finished the simple meal of bread and cheese quickly, her smaller stomach was now happily full, and she was going to try and get some more sleep as they continued. Even though she had several hours of sleep already, it still felt like she hadn't slept at all. Picking at a small amount of food stuck in her teeth, she felt a strange amount of depression at the thought of food. Shrugging it off she left the small fire to go answer another of nature's call.

On the way back she was stopped by Kasumi who was waiting at the edge of the forest. "Uh－ hey."

Kasumi didn't immediately say anything before sighing. "Ranma, I've kept quiet about this for some time but I know your story about Jusenkyo is a lie."

"What? No it's not." She laughed nervously.

"When I first met your mother she said you lied."

"You can't believe her." Ranma tried to dismiss it as ludicrous to believe a demon.

"No I can't believe you." Kasumi stated. "That story your father told was unbelievable and everything I've seen reinforces that. And then there was what you told Ukyo earlier. Please, just tell me the truth. I'm not just here to be your shoulder to cry on when you need it. I thought we were friends."

Ranma bit at her lip and averted her eyes to see if anyone else was around. "Jusenkyo was to change back." She finally answered. "I freed a God－ and Pop and I laughed at him because he looked funny. He changed me into this." Ranma gestured to herself. "Does that answer your question?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't tell anybody." A small amount of anger entered Ranma's voice. "Do I expect to know your life story? Do you want to know every embarrassing thing I've had to do just to get by after being changed into this?"

"No." Kasumi took a tiny step away.

"Should I tell you about having to deal with getting a period? A proud day in my life trying to find a doctor who would even see me because I thought I was hurt." Ranma's tail lashed back and forth, nearly throwing her off balance.

"Ranma－ I just wanted－." The blonde stopped straightened herself and even started to loom over her.

"Wanted what?" She snapped. "I can't have privacy? Did I lose that when I became a tiefling? Does it mean I have to answer all questions all the time?" Ranma wasn't thinking and didn't avoid the slap that hit her cheek. Stopping her tirade she raised a hand to touch where Kasumi had hit her.

"You lied to me, don't act like it's my fault for wanting to know the truth." Kasumi's golden eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "I understand you're stressed but you're not going to take it out on me." Sniffing, the other tiefling stormed off towards the carriages.

"Ka－ Kasumi?" Watching her fiancé's retreating form, she realized what she had just done. "Hey Kasumi wait." The trotted off after the tiefling but froze at a branch breaking overhead. Looking up she saw past a patch of leaves that Konatsu crouched on a tree limb. Ranma's eyes widened in horror at being overheard as the girl above gave her a similar look at being discovered.

"You going to tell Ukyo?" She called up the tree. "Want to really pile it on?

"No." Konatsu relaxed slightly. "That would only hurt her more and I wouldn't do that." The girl gave her a disgusted look before leaping from the tree towards the caravan.

X x x x x x

'You've really screwed up this time.' Ranma adjusted the strap on her pack and wondered how she could get Kasumi to stop ignoring her. Not one thing she had said since their fight earlier in the day had elicited a response from the other tiefling. But now they had reached Yuresti and they would either need to camp outside the city or find a place to stay.

Yuresti was built next to a sheer cliff face overlooking the sea and was a major shipping hub. Air ships docked on the cliff where they could be directly loaded while keeping their altitude and at the sea level hundreds of large ships were docked. Wide paved roads arrived from the North and South and large warehouses and places to care for the various animals used to pull the caravans. This was where they had arrived and even with the strong breeze coming in from the sea, the smell of pack animals was almost overpowering.

"Hey Kasumi?" She tried to get the blonde's attention, her voice slightly hoarse from not talking half the day. "Did you want to find a place?" Kasumi didn't acknowledge her as she started off towards the center of town. Glancing at Ukyo and Konatsu who were watching as crates with Ukyo's names were unloaded, Ranma went to follow Kasumi.

Ranma had been through Yuresti a long time ago so she vaguely remembered some of the sights and sounds. With the weather having turned to snow the streets were filled only with people hurrying to their destinations. Most of the noise came from workers and equipment loading cargo on to ships. Catching some snowflakes as they slowly drifted from the sky to land in the palm of her hand, Ranma tried to think of a way to patch things up with Kasumi.

She had expected Kasumi to find an inn but her fiancé went to the dock area for the airships. There was a wooden walkway built for easy access to the docks and Kasumi stopped next to the railing to watch as one pulled away. At the back of the ship, two propellers three times her height chopped at the air as it increased in speed. Seeing the shape of it, Ranma wondered why they made them look like the sea-faring vessels.

"They stay up cause of the neutral stones." Ranma tried to get Kasumi to open up by explaining something casual like how the ships worked. "See em along the sides?" She pointed in the ships direction, unable to specify the four large stones spaced equally around the hull. "They can hold up the same amount they weigh but only move when more than their weight in force is put on them. That's why they dock them up here. Easier to go forward and back than up and down."

"How long?" Kasumi finally talked back to her. "How long were you a tiefling before Jusenkyo?"

"Uh－." Ranma mentally counted up the time quickly. "About two months."

"And you had a period?"

"Ye－ yes." Her face flushed in embarrassment.

"That must have been horrible for you."

Ranma's embarrassment quickly vanished at the mocking tone of Kasumi. "Yea."

"My sisters and I have dealt with that about half our lives. But don't worry, I'm sure that one time was very traumatic."

"Well I didn't really mean it like that." She shuffled her feet nervously.

"And becoming a tiefling, did the non-planetouched look at you poorly? Act like you were just as much a demon as your mother is? No, you didn't grow up hearing stories about how cruel and monstrous tieflings can be. How it's entirely possible you can be forced into servitude like a demon."

"Um－." Ranma was growing increasingly uncomfortable by Kasumi's demeanor.

"My sisters were sent to school when they were old enough while I stayed at home, I had private tutors because when I did try to go the other children were scared of me." Kasumi rested her hands on the wooden railing and hung her head. "Ranma－ why did you think I wouldn't understand?"

"I don't know." She answered, having never figured out a good reason for not telling Kasumi when she had told Akane. "I wanted to find a way to tell you at first but then I met my mom and just didn't think about it." Looking down at Kasumi's right hand on the railing, she slowly reached out to put her left down on top of it. "I'm sorry."

"Just give me some time." Kasumi pulled her hand away.

"Alright." Ranma quickly shoved her hands in her pockets, disappointed that Kasumi hadn't accepted her apology but happy that they were talking. "We should probably find a place to stay for the night, unless you want me to setup the tent." Even though she knew they would be overcharged, Ranma would prefer to spend the night in an inn over a tent.

"Place to stay." Kasumi breathed in deeply through her nose and continued to stare out over the water. "But I'd like to stay here for just a bit longer."

X x x x x x

Sitting down on a comfortable chair, Ranma rubbed at her eyes, and wondered why she had woken up so early. It barely felt like she had gotten any sleep at all but she was up at the same time the sun was starting to appear from over the sea. The small inn they had settled on was actually a place that rented out rooms in their home. Only two other guests were staying and Ranma was looking forward to a nice meal to start the day. The room she was in currently was a small living space with chairs and sofas setup for guests to use. The next room over as a dining area and through that was the kitchen with a fireplace.

Stretching her arms up over her head, she curled up to try and fall back to sleep. Her attempt immediately failed when one of the owners greeted her. Groaning at the injustice, she was polite enough to respond. "Morning."

"Early riser?" The middle aged woman asked.

"Not really." She answered, the tip of her tail flicking in response to her irritation.

"I've always been up with the sun myself." The woman continued to talk as she proceeded to open up all the drapes around the room. "Ever since I was a little girl I loved to watch the sea ships go out."

Ranma watched the woman as she moved through the different rooms and opened up the inn to the outside world. Resigning herself to further lack of sleep, she followed the owner into the kitchen. "Can I have something to drink?" She was aware that this was an inn and she was a customer but it felt too much like being a guest in someone's home for her to simply demand anything.

"Of course dear, what would you like?" The woman asked as she opened up an icebox. "The milk isn't in yet but there is some orange juice. If you want to wait just a minute I'm going to heat some water for tea." (1)

"Tea please."

"So what's your destination?" The innkeeper asked as she filled a kettle in with a hand pump.

"Lutansk." She answered. "I can heat that." She cast a quick heat enchantment on the kettle before the woman could start a fire to heat it with.

"You know magic?" The woman seemed impressed by the simple spell and hung the kettle in the fireplace. "Is that what takes you there? Rumor has it that it's become quite dangerous and I know they are not particularly friendly to plane-touched."

"It's personal."

"Sorry if it's a touchy subject. What is your name by the way? I'm Keiko and my surname is Yukimura, but you know that from the sign outside." The woman laughed to herself like she had just made a joke by mentioning that this was the Yukimura inn.

"Ranma Saotome." She answered, slightly taken up by the woman's enthusiasm at this horrific time of day.

"Your friends name is－ Kasumi?" Keiko asked and Ranma nodded. "Did you have any plans before you leave again?"

"Not really. I just know the ship is going to be leaving tomorrow." Ranma was relieved upon seeing the schedule that they had arrived earlier than she had planned. Otherwise they would have missed the ship.

"There are some good shops down in the market if you want souvenirs and I'm sure with winter coming you can haggle for a very good price." The innkeeper took the kettle and poured two cups of tea. Moving over to a cupboard she grabbed a small bowl and placed it along with the tea in front of Ranma. "Some sugar if you want."

"Thanks." She poured only a small amount of the sugar in her cup before taking a brief sip before deciding to wait for it to cool. Catching Keiko's look over Ranma's shoulder, she glanced behind to see that there was nothing there.

"Oh sorry, I just didn't notice you had wings."

"Ah－." Ranma flexed the currently small appendages. "I can change their size." Quickly growing them out to their medium length to emphasize her point. "But it's easier to wear a jacket when they're small."

"You're just full of surprises." Keiko gave her another impressed look. "Well if you're going to Lutansk to learn magic, good for you."

"Um－ thanks." Ranma was surprised over the notion of learning magic while at Lutansk. Her entire plan so far had revolved around getting a cure and then heading back. It could always be a backup plan to try and get some instruction if a cure didn't materialize.

X x x x x x

Kasumi's golden eyes scanned the ship schedule while trying to make sense of the information overload she was getting. After breakfast they had made their way here to book passage sooner rather than later. Thankfully Ranma seemed to know what was going on and was talking to an elderly man behind a window. He was looking at a log book showing a large number of names and dates.

"Yes, two for Lutansk." The redhead reiterated.

"There's a demon threatening the city."

"So? It's still there isn't it?" Ranma was growing impatient with the man who was trying to dissuade them.

"Alright." He finally relented with an audible sigh. Trailing a bony finger down the page he stopped at an open line. "How much luggage do you plan to take with you?"

"Two duffel bags." Her fiancé answered. "Ten kilograms at most."

"You'll have to keep them in the room with you." The man tapped his finger repeatedly. "No first class accommodations and the only rooms available are for one."

"Is there floor space?" Ranma asked and the man nodded. "Then we can share a room and I'll just sleep on the floor."

"Well alright." He sighed again and pulled out a pad of paper from a drawer to his right. "One way, price per ticket is fifty gold, so that'll be one hundred gold."

Kasumi wished that she didn't notice the smug expectation in the man's voice that they wouldn't be able to pay. She was however happy to see his expression falter when she handed over the exact amount. "I do hope you aren't overcharging us sir."

"Who do you think you are? Asking me if I'm cheating you." He told her and quickly stamped two tickets before sliding them through a slot at the bottom of the glass. "Get out of here."

"Have a nice day." She replied politely and tried to leave without incident but she heard him say one last thing.

"Disgusting infernals."

Kasumi stiffened but kept walking until she noticed that Ranma had stopped. "Ranma we should go."

"No." The red head spun around and stormed up to the window.

"What do you want?" The man sneered a moment before Ranma punched through the glass and grabbed him by the shirt. With a quick tug he was pulled back over the counter and thrown to the ground. Kasumi looked around in horror at what Ranma had just done as the crowd of people going about their business all focused on them.

"Ranma let him go." She tried to pull Ranma away up until her fiancée pulled the man into a kneeling position to face her.

"Apologize." Ranma commanded.

"Wh－ what?" The man asked, dazed from the sudden attack.

"She is not disgusting and I'm not disgusting, now apologize." Ranma gripped the man's shoulder tightly making him squirm in pain.

"I'm sorry." He quickly gasped out and Ranma pushed him back to the ground as soon as his mouth had closed.

"Ranma, you can't just do that." She admonished the other tiefling and helped the man to his feet. "I can't say how sorry I am sir."

"What is going on here?" A man from the city guard demanded, a second man from the guard was also with him.

"These monsters attacked me." The man pushed Kasumi roughly and ran to the city guard. "I want them both arrested."

"It's a big misunderstanding. We'll pay for the damage." She was starting to panic, not knowing if these men would even listen to her. Kasumi winced as there were several calls for them to be thrown out of the city or to be locked up.

"You're going to have to come with us." The guard ordered.

X x x x x x

"Kasumi!" Pepa exclaimed happily as she latched on to the tiefling's shoulder.

"Pepa, you're back." Kasumi gently patted her. "Where have you been?"

"Hmm?" Blinking repeatedly, she pulled away and hovered in the air. "I'm not sure."

"Well please don't run off like that again, I was worried."

"Okay." She nodded and finally gave Ranma a moment of her attention. "Did that mean 'ol Ranma do anything bad while I was away?"

"Yes, Ranma did." Kasumi answered.

"I just did it, I wasn't thinking." The red head protested weakly.

"Well you're lucky that the authorities found out that man was cheating us out of money and the owner was more angry with him than you for breaking that glass."

"Oooh she did something bad." Pepa giggled to herself.

"I did." Ranma sighed. Pepa raised an eyebrow and moved over to hover in front of the red head's face. There was a strange spell hanging over the girl that helped create her. She had noticed it shortly after the two tieflings had left on this trip but it was much stronger now. "Do you have to do that?" Ranma asked irritably.

"No." She answered and flew over to follow next to Kasumi.

"I'll have to get something to thank your sister for lending me her bag of holding or I wouldn't have had enough to pay the fine and repairs." Kasumi continued to berate Ranma. "Father is not going to be happy when he learns how much we've had to spend already."

"Sorry－ again." Ranma almost whined.

"I know your heart was in the right place but what's gotten into you lately?" Kasumi asked.

"Tired, I'm just tired." The red head answered and rubbed at her temples.

"Then I think you should go back to the inn and get some sleep. I still want to look around the city some more."

"Yea that's probably a good idea."

Tilting her head to one side, Pepa watched the red head leave Kasumi. Part of her rejoiced that the evil tiefling was gone but another part was sad that Kasumi was unhappy. Flittering about in Kasumi's wake, intensely interested in several shiny objects that caught her eye, she bumped into the tieflings back when she stopped suddenly.

"Pepa, would you go watch over Ranma for me?" Kasumi asked.

"But－." She pouted.

"I just want to be sure he doesn't do anything else."

"Okay." She kicked at invisible rocks underneath her feet.

It didn't take long for her to track Ranma down and after turning down the intensity of her body, she sat down on a nearby table to watch the red head try to sleep. Since she didn't sleep, she had gotten used to watching others sleep but she was bored and wanted to spend time with Kasumi. When Ranma finally seemed to fall asleep, she dropped down from her position to hover over the girl's head.

"Hmm."

X x x x x x

In the magical kingdom of Nermia, there was the enchanted forest of Tendoland, and in the forest existed the magical fairies under the care of the good dragon Kasumi. The magical fairies were led by the Great King Kuno who was tall and handsome and Queen Ranma who was normal height but beautiful. The two lived in a castle made out of pretty flowers under the shade of a giant oak. One of their children was named Pepa. Who was the cutest, most energetic, and loved daughter in all the forest. (2)

It was a beautiful day, like all days were, and Pepa was flying through the forest enjoying the many plants and cute furry animals that lived within it. Pepa was wearing her favorite shoulder-less mini-dress today. The bright gossamer blue fabric sparkled in the light and was spun with the finest spider silk. Glitter from her body added to the reflective nature of it and made the white lace accents glow. Her hair had been lovingly braided into pigtails on the side of her head by her mother. Ethereal straps wrapped down her calves and around her feet to her cute little toes painted a bright and reflective red.

Stopping to smell a flower, a dark shadow loomed over her, and she recoiled in horror upon seeing the evil and most assuredly ugly hag, the Succubus Nodoka. The evil red haired hag smiled and cackled in glee as she wringed her hands. Pepa being brave and heroic stood her ground as the huge Demon loomed over her.

"What do we have here?" The Succubus cackled in glee again. "A little fairy far from home?"

"What do you want old hag?" Pepa demanded. This forest was for the good fairies and cute furry animals, not for ugly old hags.

"You!" The huge Demon's hands closed around Pepa's body.

"Let me go!" Pepa fought with all her might to free herself.

"Ha ha ha urk!" Nodoka's evil laughter was stopped when the good dragon Kasumi descended from the sky.

"Stop right there evil doer!" Kasumi demanded, striking a dramatic pose, and pointing towards the evil hag Nodoka. The good dragon wore a white leotard with a red bow over her chest. A red skirt with a glittering gold border flared in the wind created by the good dragon's sudden arrival. Kasumi's long red tail waved behind her and great wings made of magic were spread dramatically.

"The good dragon Kasumi!" Nodoka gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"To protect the beautiful and peaceful fairies that you threaten!" Kasumi declared. "Now release the cute fairy Pepa or I will vaporize you!"

"Never! You won't do anything while I have her!" The Demon shoved Pepa between the two giants.

"Then I shall remove the foul corruption that tugs upon your very soul!" Kasumi pirouetted and threw her hands towards the Demon. "Good dragon Kasumi purification beam!"

"No!" The evil hag Nodoka screamed as pretty red hearts raced from Kasumi's outstretched hands like swirling leaves to envelope her. Released, Pepa flew over to the good dragon Kasumi for protection.

"Thank you!" Pepa exclaimed and fluttered excitedly around the gigantic form.

"No need to thank me." The blonde dragoness answered. "Now go play and enjoy the forest while I teach this mean old hag a lesson."

"Yes ma'am!" She did another circle around Kasumi before flying off to tell her mother and father about this adventure.

She found her mother and Queen lounging upon a leaf looking across the clearing that surrounded the castle under the shade of the oak. All around her, tiny fairies still made of light coalesced, matured, hugged their mother, and then flew away to explore the world. Dozens of older fairies were gathered around their Queen Mother, all clamoring for her attention with tales of their adventures. Ranma used brightly colored bits of flowers collected by her children to decorate her long flowing red hair as it cascaded down to her knees.

"I saw the old hag Nodoka!" She exclaimed and all conversation stopped to focus on her. "Uh huh, she was in the forest and she wanted to do horrible things to me." Her wings fluttered rapidly and she hugged herself. "But the kind dragon Kasumi saved me!"

"A visit by Kasumi?" Ranma rose from the leaf she was sitting on and unfurled her four large dragonfly wings to briefly fly forward and land on the branch Pepa had set down on. The Queen's long transparent green dress settled back down and the glitter from her body sprinkled away to vanish. Magic held the backless gown up because there were no straps to hold up the front that only came up far enough to cover the Queen's bust. From her waist down it was long and flowing with intricate patterns of gold weaved into the fabric. "It's wonderful that you weren't hurt."

"I was so scared." Pepa ran up and hugged her mother.

"Shh－ it's okay, mother is here." Ranma stroked at the back of her head. Pepa sighed in happiness and fully leaned into her parents embrace. "You have to be careful, the forest isn't just a playground for good things."

"I will." She nodded, feeling like an important lesson had been learned today.

X x x x x x

Kasumi took several minutes to talk to the kind woman who owned the inn after returning from her trip around the city. After two days straight of traveling with Ranma it had been nice to have some time to herself. Most people she dealt with in Yuresti were uncaring of her infernal heritage but the few who did were on the more extreme end of what she normally dealt with in Nerima. She had been able to pick up a very nice and more importantly modest dress that she would give to Michiko when they returned home. Kasumi had also picked up one for each of her sisters in styles and colors she thought would look good on them. Most of the vendors she had talked to were trying to sell everything they had before winter set in and travelers became scarce.

Trying to stealthily deposit her purchases in the room she shared with Ranma, she found the red head sleeping peacefully on the bed. Kasumi wasn't particularly comfortable with being in a bed with Ranma but wouldn't have minded if Ranma hadn't volunteered to sleep on the floor over the bed large with her. Glancing around, she wondered where Pepa was hiding.

"Pepa?" She whispered, hoping the spell fairy hadn't vanished yet again.

Ranma moaned in response to her whisper and rolled on to her back. "Kasumi?"

"Sorry if I woke you." She winced.

The other tiefling groaned and sat up, shivering visibly, and hugging herself. "I feel－." Ranma gagged and her skin started to glow red.

"Ranma?" Quickly sitting down on the bed, she didn't know what to do when someone started glowing.

The glow around Ranma intensified before it shifted away from the girl's body, passing through clothing and flesh, and shrinking down to form into a familiar but altered fairy. Pepa staggered around the bed like a drunk before falling flat on her face with a cute exclamation. Kasumi could only stare at the fairy who was now a mixture of light and flesh. Pepa's hair was now a bright shade of blue, her wings were white, and a red spade tipped tail had sprouted from the base of spine. The tiny dress the fairy wore had also changed to be a translucent blue with various glowing patterns throughout.

"What? What's going on?" Kasumi looked back and forth between the two, Ranma still looking like she would throw up was now openly staring at Pepa.

"She was in me?" Ranma asked in horror before covering up her mouth and rushing out of the room.

"Oh my."

X x x x x x

The next morning, Ranma stood with Kasumi as the man taking their tickets checked and weighed their belongings. It was their good fortune that the company running the docks had apparently not decided to stop them from traveling after Ranma's violent outburst the day before. The man sifting through her things paused before pulling her sword from it's scabbard off her pack. Twisting and turning it, he quirked his mouth to the side in thought.

"Why do you have this?" He asked.

"It can be dangerous traveling, gotta protect myself." Ranma answered.

"Any enchantments on it?"

"The usual." She answered.

"Sharpness, durability, and cleaning?" He asked and she nodded. "Alright, but this stays in your cabin during the trip. If it's seen anywhere else you'll lose it."

"Understood."

"Do you have any weapons on you?" He turned to Kasumi.

"No." The eldest Tendo sister answered.

"What's that?" He motioned towards the small faintly glowing bundle of fabric that Kasumi had slung around her hips.

"A fairy that travels with us." Kasumi opened the top enough for the man to see the comatose Pepa inside. "She's sleeping."

"Never seen a fairy that looked like that." He shrugged. "You're in cabin eight. Go across the ramp and go through the door on this side of the ship."

"Thank you." Kasumi gave the man a polite bow. Ranma merely gave the man a nod before following Kasumi on to the ship. She gave the bundle at Kasumi's hip a death glare. After she had vacated the contents of her stomach upon realizing that Pepa had been inside her body, she had returned to find that the spell creature was laying comatose on the bed. Pepa had gained a tail like a Succubus and was now partially flesh and magic. As much as Ranma had wanted to squash her initially, with Kasumi protecting the spell creature, she was forced to cool off.

Their room was as small as she had expected and to add insult to injury it was on the inside of the ship so there wasn't even a window looking out. If Kasumi and her tried they could both fit on the bed but Ranma didn't want to make her fiancé uncomfortable. Sitting down on the bed, she yawned heavily, and wondered why she simply could not get any rest. It felt like she had been awake for the past three days.

"Are you alright?" Kasumi asked, looking at her worriedly.

"Just tired." Her eyes shifted down to Pepa's sleeping form. "She better not be the reason." Since waking up with the fairy in her body, the subject of how Pepa had done that and whether or not it was connected to her sleep issues had been discussed. Ukyo was a possibility considering their poor reunion.

"Maybe." Kasumi sat down next to her. "But I don't think so. I think it's a spell that Pepa connected with and that's why she ended up in you."

"Even better." Ranma sighed. If Pepa wasn't the one to cause this then who had cast a spell on her?

"We should be able to find someone to check you out when we get to Lutansk, right?" The other tiefling suggested. "You want to try to get some sleep till then?"

"Not sure." It was hard to think straight when things were blurring together. 'What if it is a spell and it wants me to sleep?' Ranma held little doubt that dreams that would make her wake up screaming were not the result of a positive spell.

"How about joining me outside for some fresh air over this smelly room?" Kasumi placed a hand on Ranma's.

Her face heated up and she quickly looked down to avoid eye contact. "O－ okay."

X x x x x x

Nodoka did one last frivolous check to make sure she wasn't in her real form before opening the door. Behind the door to her apartment was Genma in his usual training rags and she smiled pleasantly at him. It had been several days since she last satisfied her need to feed and the man had great endurance. "Good afternoon." She greeted.

"Hi." He greeted with the usual longing in his voice.

"Come in." She let him enter and shut the door behind him. "Michiko was just showing me the magic she learned in my absence."

"Daughter." Genma nodded to the dark haired tiefling who was sitting on Nodoka's bed. "Nodoka, I came to ask a favor."

"What kind of favor?" She asked, curious what he might ask.

"Would you come live at the Tendo's?"

"I've grown quite fond of my little apartment here." She answered and it was true. The woman who owned the building kept to herself, didn't ask questions, and Nodoka often shared meals with her. "Why would I want to live with you there?"

"Kasumi is gone with Ranma and while Akane tries she is not skilled with performing anything around the home." Genma explained a bit nervously.

"So you're unable to cook for yourself?" She asked in amusement. From her position to the side Michiko giggled in similar mirth. The only time a Succubus would cook for herself and others was for her own enjoyment so this was one of the first times her daughter had ever met a man incapable of cooking. "How have you lived all these years?" Genma laughed nervously in response to her question. "Ranma ended up feeding you, didn't she?"

"Hey I raised the boy to take care of himself."

"I'll have to decline." She answered his original question finally. "Michiko is going to remain on this plane for a bit longer and while I have nothing against the Tendo's, I think it would be best for her not spend too much time around a family who think tieflings should be hidden."

Genma took a moment to catch her reference to the way Kasumi had been hidden when Ranma first arrived. "Soun's always been overprotective."

"If that's what you want to call it." Brushing some arrant hair from her eyes, she honestly wondered at the incompetence of mortals races. "Is that all you wanted?" She asked with a hint of suggestion in her voice.

"I guess it is." He answered sadly, ignoring her suggestion.

X x x x x x

"Ranma!"

Fifteen year old Ranma jerked at his mother's shout and hurried off to answer her summons. Pausing at the door, he straightened out his clothing, and took a deep breath before entering her room. Standing at attention was his twin sister, Michiko who was being fussed over by Nodoka.

"Yes mother?" He asked with his eyes locked on the floor just beneath her feet and hands clasped behind his back.

"Our guests will be here shortly, is the food ready?"

"Yes mother." He nodded.

"And the other men are all cleaned and prepared to receive guests?"

"Yes mother." He nodded again.

"Good." Nodoka smiled at Michiko proudly before picking some imaginary dirt from the girl's wing. "I will not allow one of your cousins to be chosen." She told Michiko while ignoring him.

"Did you need anything else?" Ranma hazarded speaking out of turn to find out if he could go about his business.

Nodoka gave him a smoldering look before she responded. "I swear if you do anything to ruin this I'll have your wings flayed. Don't you care about your sister at all?" Ranma stayed quiet but gave a nervous glance backwards to his wings and he was sure this time his mother would carry out the threat.

"Mom, why are you worrying about him? This is my day remember?" Michiko interrupted Nodoka before she could go into a tirade about his selfishness and Ranma would have to thank his sister later for the respite.

"You're right." Nodoka smiled approvingly at her daughter before giving him one last dirty look. "If you weren't my son－ no, if you weren't part infernal I would have had that tongue of yours cut out long ago. Now get out and wait till I call for you again."

"Yes mother." He nodded and hurried out of the room. As soon as he was out of ear shot he let out a sigh of relief. Disobedience among the slaves was rare but was dealt with harshly and he had been there to witness everyone that he could recall. All men would be there to watch, his family liked to make an example of what would happen. He had been lucky so far and Nodoka was usually quite lenient if he spoke up but today she was clearly uninterested in his lip.

He never made it to his quarters before being jumped by one of his cousins, Gyoko. A year old than him, she had blonde hair with orange highlights, hazel eyes, and was one of the few members of the house near his age. "Are you busy?" She asked while toying with one of his horns. "I wanted to spend a little time with you before the ambassador got here."

"Actually I am." Because he was part human he didn't need to feed off of others but that same part of him made him one of the most sought after sources of energy.

"Are you telling me no?" Her face twisted into a scowl.

"No, my mother gave me things that I need to take care of." He answered while trying to politely disengage himself from her body.

"Well I'm telling you to give me five minutes." She didn't wait before planting a kissing directly on his lips. Breaking away briefly she pushed him up against the wall. "Can't meet my future, what did they call her? Bride? Feeling puckish now can I?"

"Gyoko, please I have things to do." He protested and tried unsuccessfully to get away.

"Shut up, I'm not taking no for an answer."

X x x x x x

Ranma checked to make sure there was no one who could sneak up on him before peaking around the doorway to the large hall at the entrance to their home. His sister and cousins were assembled with their mothers and all of the grandmothers were also in attendance. The ambassador was here and Ranma was surprised to see that it was a man. Dressed in clothes that covered all but his hands and head, Ranma found him to be a strange sight.

Walking up to the man was Ranma's great grandmother, Kouengami greeted him with more respect than he had ever seen a male treated with. "Ambassador, welcome to my home."

"Thank you for your hospitality." The mustached man answered with a curt bow of his head. Stepping to the side, a girl a year or two older than him with golden hair stepped forward. "This is my daughter, Kasumi."

Like the man, Kasumi was covered in clothing from neck to toe, except she had infernal features. Four stubby horns protruded upwards from her forehead above her soft brown eyes, and a red reptilian tail was curled around her legs.

"Hello." The girl greeted with a curtsy.

Ranma ignored his grandmother as she introduced his relatives to stare at the new comer. Leaning further out of his hiding place to get the best possible look he could at the girl, he had never seen a non-succubus tiefling before. She wasn't very pretty compared to his sister and cousins but he found the difference to be a positive. He was worried about her clothing though, what was she hiding? Was she malformed in some way?

Kasumi for some reason picked up on his scrutiny and looked over in his direction out of the corner of her eye. As she turned her head towards him he realized that he would be noticed by his family if he stayed and quickly hid out of sight.

X x x x x x

Ranma was a little worried that he wasn't requested for the rest of the day. He was used to taking part in meetings between the families as well as being privy to information and activities that no other male had seen. To be cut out of all activities since the ambassador and his daughter had arrived was completely out of the ordinary. Avoiding any cousins who would find ways to occupy his time, he searched the home for his mother. He found her discussing something with Michiko away from the other candidates who he could hear in the next room talking animatedly with a much more subdued Kasumi.

Nodoka caught sight of him immediately. "Good I was just going to send for you." Turning away from him she gave Michiko a big hug. "Go back in there and make sure your cousins don't make too much of an impression before we retire for the evening."

"Yes mom." His twin gave their mother a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing off.

"Come with me." Nodoka hurried off in the opposite direction and he followed. She didn't speak again until they had entered into her room and the door was closed. "The ambassador's daughter is－ uncooperative. She keeps herself distant from your sister and the others. I'm not sure what one of these marriages are supposed to be but this girl isn't here to make our lives easy."

"You can be of help though." His mother trailed a hand down his wing before resting it on his shoulder. "I want you to be with her tonight and make sure she chooses your sister."

Ranma didn't hide the smile the appeared on his face. He would be able to talk to Kasumi in private and help out his mother and sister at the same time. "I'll do my best."

"I know you will." She patted his hair and smiled sadly at him. "You're such a good child, it's too bad that you were born a male."

"Thank you mother."

X x x x x x

Ranma waited patiently outside Kasumi's new room for the girl to turn in for the night. When she finally did show up it was with two of his cousins badgering her with questions. Seeing him, they glanced towards Kasumi, and then back to him before excusing themselves. Left alone with the other tiefling he didn't immediately know what to say.

"I'm here to attend to you." He bowed his head deeply. "If you need anything please don't hesitate to ask."

"Oh－ thank you." She actually returned his bow. "Is this my room?"

He nodded, too shocked that Kasumi had even inclined her head towards him to response. After she had been escorted into the room he closed the door behind him.

"I'm very tired, would you mind helping me with my dress?" She asked and turned her back to him. Without a verbal response, he inspected the back of her clothing and found that it was tied shut with the knot places where she could not reach. Undoing it, he loosened up the string, watching intently as the material opened up to show the smooth skin of the girl's shoulders.

"Do you－ do you mind if I ask you a question?" He inquired with a stutter as he helped her remove what turned out to be only the outer most layer of her clothing. As she stepped out of it he quickly gathered it up and set it off to the side.

"Of course not." She answered with amusement at his deference.

"Why do you hide your body with so much clothing? You're quite beautiful."

"I'm not hiding." Kasumi's face gained a blush. "I would ask why you all wear so little? I wonder why you wear anything at all."

"Clothing is just decoration." He answered with a shrug. Like the other males he wore very little past varying styles of loin cloth or pants on rare occasions.

"Would you mind if I asked you a question?" Kasumi opened up her luggage and having found a similar length dress but with a much thinner fabric, she stopped to look for something. "Other than could you look away? There isn't much privacy here."

"Of－ of course." He turned his back to the girl and blushed furiously. Kasumi, a girl, was treating him like an equal.

"What's your name?"

"My name?" Ranma was nearly hyperventilating, wondering now if this was some kind of test. She had tricked him into acting overly familiar and was now going to get him in trouble.

"Well?" She asked when he didn't respond after a moment, appearing next to him in a sheer white dress that showed off her developing curves.

"Ranma." He finally answered with head bowed. His mother would definitely go through with her threat now. Not even five minutes and he had screwed up.

"Is something wrong?" Kasumi's brown eyes met his own, and he didn't find any hint of maliciousness in them, just concern. "I hope I haven't offended you."

"You're－ I mean－ I'm a male, why ask if you've offended me?" He didn't like this at all, she didn't seem the sort to play such a cruel joke on him, but surely she knew that he could be severely punished for just talking to her.

"Well I don't want to upset my new friend." She answered.

"Friend?" Ranma was trying to get his head around the strange things Kasumi was saying.

"Of course, I'm going to be here for some time, I hope to have many friends."

Ranma wanted to tell her that she was being highly inappropriate but with the way she said it he picked up on the sadness in her voice. "I would like to be your friend." He settled on, being mindful that he was here to push Kasumi to choose his sister.

"I feel a little like a fish out of water here, would you mind answering some of my questions."

"Anything."

X x x x x x

Over the next few days, Ranma spent increasing amounts of time with Kasumi during the day being her personal servant and at night would answer questions that he was unable to say outside the privacy of the bedroom. He found Kasumi to be even stranger than he first imagined. She came from a realm where men were in charge. At first he believed her to be joking but the more she told him about it the more he believed it. From the way she treated him as an equal or superior to the fact that his grandmother had treated Kasumi's father with respect. It would be scary to leave the Succubae realm but he wondered if someday he might be able to see this place for himself.

He had expected to perform for her in the bedroom but she never asked and he would never force himself upon a woman. Ranma was unsure on how to even broach the subject. Never in his life had he met a woman who didn't demand physical contact. Kasumi was the opposite, refraining almost completely from unnecessary physical contact from everyone.

His mother had made arrangements to keep him free to be around Kasumi as much as possible and he knew that she expected results. But the more time he spent around the other tiefling the more he forgot about pushing her towards Michiko. Kasumi was kind and compassionate in a way he had never known. Stopping to look wistfully out a window towards the garden, he wished he could be the one chosen for her.

"You wanted to see me mother?" He asked, standing just inside the doorway to her room, and allowing the man she had been feeding from to leave.

"I've heard some things." She said as she was cleaning herself up. "About you and the girl."

"Have I done something wrong?" Ranma had been trying to weave Michiko into their conversations as much as possible, and no one else had been around to hear their more candid conversations.

"Nothing of the sort." She smiled pleasantly at him and sat down on her bed before motioning him to sit next to her. "But I've seen that you two are quite close, far closer than any of the girls. You've become an item of sort and there's been a great deal of speculation on what should be done."

Sitting down a close but respectable distance from his mother, Ranma waited for her to bring up why she brought him here. He was a fool to think that he could keep anything from his family. He was just a male after all and he felt bad for betraying Nodoka's trust in him by using her instructions to further his own desires.

Nodoka didn't seem to like his position because she moved over and held his head to her chest. "You've always been such a loyal child. I blame myself for giving you the cursed existence of a male." Ranma blinked several times, unable to figure out where she was going.

"I've put in a request with her majesty to make you as you should have been." Nodoka finished and pulled his head away from her body to stare into her eyes.

"You mean－." He trailed off.

"Yes, her majesty will change you into a succubus and you'll be the one to take up the marriage."

He opened his mouth to respond in some way but couldn't articulate his feelings. "I－ don't know what to say."

"A thank you for starters."

"Thank you." He cried happily and hugged her. Ranma was so happy that he couldn't stop himself from crying.

X x x x x x

Ranma wanted to itch at the clothing hanging from his shoulders but kept his hands still, too nervous to try and remove it. He tried to remember every detail and feeling he got upon seeing the Queen's palace in all its splendor for the first time. Everywhere around him Succubae mingled together, some with slaves, others not. Finally giving into the urge to fidget, he shifted the black robe he wore to try and get comfortable with it on. When others noticed that he was wearing it, he received a myriad of reactions. Most gave him a neutral look, others like he was lower than a male, and a few with approval.

"Mother－ shouldn't I know what I need to do?" He asked, keeping his voice low enough not to be heard.

"I'm told that all it takes is a kiss from her majesty."

'I get to kiss the Queen?' He thought excitedly, following his proudly smiling mother with a spring in his step.

The room he ended up in was hexagonal and various sizes of beds were placed around the room in random locations. Rugs of various thickness covered most of the floor and skylights illuminated the room. He was curious over why a man had accompanied each of the eight families matriarchs.

Standing in the center of the group was the Queen herself. She was slightly taller than him with long dark black hair that reached her knees. Part of her hair was draped over the front of her body to cover one breast. Flawless skin with only a light tan was revealed by a tight fitting shiny black corset that pushed up and showed off her generous bust. Small strips of transparent fabric of black and red were draped down in the back and seemed to move even though she was standing still. Her hips were cocked to one side and a hand was situated on side. Emerald green eyes looked through him and a corner of her lips were quirked in a smile. When he and Nodoka had reached a few paces from her, he got down on one knee while his mother remained slightly behind.

"There's no longer a need for you to do that." She spoke to him, her voice was like music in his ears. "I am greeting a new sister, not a male." Uncomfortably he rose to his feet but kept his eyes averted. She moved towards him, the strips of clothing behind her swaying out of sync with her hips. "Your name?"

"Ranma." He answered, mesmerized by her movements, but aware enough to notice that the matriarchs had left but their slaves remained. Looking away from his Queen for a moment, he found that his mother had also left.

"Ranma, this will be the last time you will be called by that name." She leaned forward and used a hand to lift his chin up before delicately kissing him on the lips.

He almost didn't notice the drain on his aura till she had pulled away. Ranma was used to the feeling and usually ignored it but instead of stopping it continued. The Queen reached down to grab his hand and pull him towards the assembled men. In a daze he followed, feeling the drain suddenly stop to be replaced by a strange new one. If he had to describe being drained it was like breathing out but this new sensation was breathing in. In the small distance to the first man, the room seemed to grow around him, even the queen and men became almost a head taller.

"Take－ they are for you." The Queen told him as she made him take the man's hand before stepping away. Without her touch, Ranma felt a growing need to feel it again until he found a new source from the man.

X x x x x x

Snuggling deeper into soft sheets, Ranma struggled to bring himself into full wakefulness. His body tingled and his memory was fuzzy. The way he was laying felt odd and it was uncomfortable enough to get him up. Pushing his upper body up off the bed, a sheet fell off of him, and he felt an odd shifting from his chest. Looking down, he was greeted with the sight of two well-formed breasts attached to his chest. Gasping, he quickly moved his hands to roam over his body, feeling the change in muscle tone, how his skin had changed texture, and the new shapes and curves that dominated this new form.

Tentatively he reached up to feel the side of his head and found that his horns were gone. "I'm a Succubus." She fell back on the bed, breasts jostling briefly before settling on her chest. Unable to stop her curiosity, she continued to explore, mentally mapping out everything. Her self-discovery was interrupted by the nagging feeling that she needed something.

Taking control of herself, she looked around the room, and found her eyes lingering on a man lying on the floor. Sliding out from the covers, she padded across to him on her new smaller feet. Still amazed at the sensations of her new flesh, she touched him on the chest, remembering that she needed to drain others now. Expecting this new need to be filled, she received nothing.

"Hey, wake up." She shook him and took a moment to luxuriate in the sound of her new voice. "Hey." She shook him more urgently. Looking around quickly, she tried to find someone to come help the man, but only found her mother entering with another man.

"Mother!" She quickly bounced over to her parent.

"Are you hungry?" Nodoka asked, motioning towards the man who was carrying a tray of food.

"Oh yes." Ranma nodded, finally noticing the empty pit that was her stomach.

"In a moment, I want to get a look at you." The elder Succubus grabbed her by the shoulders and appraised her. "You've become so beautiful." Ranma was so happy that she nearly collapsed but we held up by Nodoka after being enveloped in a hug. "Yoko."

"Yoko?" Ranma asked feeling the strange new way her body fit against a female now. Another female, she corrected herself, knowing that she was a woman now as well. There would be so much for her to learn and unlearn now. The life she had, a slave and a man was over with now, and she wanted to experience every new sensation and moment to the fullest.

"Your new name."

"Yoko." She repeated once again, tasting the name, and remembering the Queen's words from before that she would not be called Ranma again. It would take some time before she thought of herself as Yoko but she could get used to it. "Can I eat now?"

"Of course."

Ranma expected to sit down and eat the food but Nodoka pushed her towards the man. Pausing only briefly, she pressed herself up against him, and felt her new requirement to feed her aura abate as the man collapsed. Quickly stepping away from the downed form, she wondered if she took too much but saw that he was only weakened. "Am I doing something wrong?" She asked her mother. It was so easy to simply take. Her sister and cousins had never had this issue.

"You just need practice." Nodoka sat down with her and placed the tray of food in her lap. "Ooh I can't wait to see you with your sister." The elder Succubus squeezed her once again.

Sighing in contentment, Ranma started to eat the food at a fast pace before slowing down, and enjoying the higher quality meal. As she ate a pair of men came and went removing the bodies of the men that she now realized that she had drained to death. "I killed them." She noted sadly, her uncontrollable actions while being transformed coming back in a haze.

"Their lives had purpose by giving you yours." Nodoka explained, running a hand through Ranma's hair where her horns used to be. "Michiko will be in soon, she and Kasumi have a surprise for you."

"Really?" She didn't know what kind of surprise could top the wonderful one of waking up as a Succubus but she hoped it came close. Ranma was unable to finish her meal before a set of doors swung open and her face lit up again at seeing her twin sister entering with Kasumi. The intensity of her smile dimmed at seeing the pair hand in hand and that Kasumi's father, Soun was entering behind them.

"Kasumi." She threw the food aside and flew over to the tiefling before landing a close distance away. Ranma wanted to show her ecstasy physically but refrained, knowing the power her touch could have on others now. "Isn't it wonderful?"

"I'm really happy for you." Michiko gushed and had no compunctions about giving her a physical greeting. Ranma enthusiastically returned Michiko's greeting while noticing that she was now the same height as her twin.

"I knew you would be perfect." Kasumi said as Michiko broke apart from Ranma to hold hands with the dragon tiefling. Ranma's eyes narrowed in confusion as she looked between the two.

"Yoko, I would like to introduce you to your husband." Nodoka turned her by the shoulders to look at Soun.

"What?" Her confusion continued to rise.

"This is a political arrangement Yoko, Kasumi comes to our house while one of ours joins Soun's." Nodoka explained.

"But－." Ranma's eyes widened in horror and she took a step away from the man.

"Now now." Nodoka pushed her into Soun. "I'm sure it will be a bit of a culture shock but you're used to serving so it shouldn't be an issue for you."

"First thing is that you'll learn to wear clothing. I'll not have your body on display for everyone." Soun grabbed her roughly by the upper arm and dragged her towards one of the nearby beds.

"Let me go!" She struggled to break his grip but found that she had been severely weakened by the transformation.

"And I will be your first and only." He pushed her on to the bed then held her down with a rough hand on her chest.

"No!" She couldn't do anything to stop him from pinning her to the bed. Trying to drain his energy she found that it refused to respond to her. "Mother, Michiko, Kasumi stop this!" Ranma cried out as she clawed at the man's face. Soun was able to grab both of her slim wrists with one hand to hold above her head.

"Don't raise a fuss Yoko, you have a duty to perform." Nodoka answered her plea as she left calmly with Michiko and Kasumi holding hands.

"You're mine and no one cares about you." Soun snarled and Ranma closed her eyes tightly as his face morphed into a scaled muzzle.

X x x x x x

"Ranma! Ranma wake up!"

Ranma's eyes fluttered open and she immediately backed away from Kasumi. Underneath her the ship shook and she was thrown up against the wall with Kasumi falling on top of her. "What's going on?" She asked weakly.

"There are things attacking the ship." Kasumi explained and Ranma focused on the terror in her voice to try and push away the haze her head was in. With the door to the room open, Ranma could hear the clash of weapons, and loud shouting accompanying them.

Getting off the bed, she grabbed her sword, and attached it to her hip. "Stay here." Closing the door behind her, she rushed down the narrow hallway. 'Kasumi wants my help? But she just betrayed me.' Her mind was starting to race even as details from what seemed like the last few weeks vanished. Pausing as she stepped out on to the deck, a fierce battle going on as men on the ship tried to defend it from disgusting twisted forms with flesh hanging from their bodies. Bringing up a hand to feel the side of her head, she found horns, while expecting only hair.

'I'm not a Succubus?' That was right, she wasn't a Demon, only a tiefling. Focusing on the present, she drew her sword and cut down a figure that had shambled towards her. It had once been a man, but looking at the remains all she could see was bone and the tattered bits of flesh connecting them together. Even though she had cleanly severed the undead in two, it clawed at the wooden deck trying to get at her. Disgusted by the stench, she covered her mouth, and kicked the wretched creature off the ship.

Looking around she saw winged humanoids depositing more and more undead on the ship. The winged creatures were also undead and were all at various stages of decomposition. A line had been formed between the undead and the living defenders in the middle of the ship, forcing the attackers on to the bow. Seeing that the defenders were slowly being overwhelmed by sheer numbers, she charged into the fray to help any that she could. Several of the men serving on the ship were excellent fighters and wore armor but most were barely able to wield a weapon. Dealing with a female winged undead as she came down to try and eviscerate her with clawed hands, Ranma was nearly caught from behind by an undead that had lost his legs, she was saved by one of the defenders.

"Watch your back there girl." He warned and hauled her to her feet.

"Thanks." She took a moment to catch her breath. The tide of undead being lifted on the ship didn't seem to end and it was beginning to tilt forward from the dozens that were on the front of the ship.

"No heroics, we'll be in the barrier just have to hold off till then." He explained and used a large mace to shatter the rib cage of an undead that had strayed too close.

'Barrier?' Ranma finally took stock of where the ship actually was. The prior day they had been over water but now they were on land, and directly ahead she could see Lutansk.

White paint reflected back the few rays of sun making it through the cloud cover to make the walls of the city glow. A huge wall surrounded a center spire that rose up even higher than the airship's current height. The buildings were lower on the outside and grew to great heights towards the center. It was hard to see but there was a slight shimmer to the air forming a dome over top of everything and extending nearly a kilometer outside the walls.

"Watch out!" Someone shouted and the man who had saved her pushed her to the deck as a small storm of arrows peppered the area. In the air more of the winged undead had brought bows and were now taking indiscriminate shots at the defenders. Any undead that were caught in the volleys simply shrugged off the damage and continued to attack. Getting back to her feet quickly, having been saved by the man's armor, she saved him from being impaled by a polearm.

Being the only one with wings, she grew them out to their full length, and paused only briefly to cut down another undead before flying towards the nearest archer. The male undead realized too late that she was not a friend as she sliced off his wing and he plummeted to the ground. Several arrows punctured her wings as she moved through the archers and picked off any that were bringing more to the ship. Stopping as the pain finally caught up to her, Ranma forced back tears, and pulled the arrows from her wings.

"Worthless!" A male voice boomed and a gout of flame struck the front neutral stone igniting the wood. Swiftly circling the ship was a cross between a dragon and a human. Large red reptilian wings beat the air and a skull with a partial muzzle opened to spit another ball of fire at the neutral stone on the other side. "Bring me any tiefling on board!" He commanded and scattered most of the defenders with another fireball allowing the undead to reach the after of the ship as they regrouped.

"Lethanial! Where are you, you worthless worm? Do your job!" The dragon man's voice boomed again his eyes locking on to her. "Get the one on the ship, it seems the other likes to play."

Ranma froze up in terror at the grinning face that advanced on her, his black plate armor contrasting against red scales. Images flashed in her mind of a man with a draconic face assaulting her. He stopped flying a short distance away and towered over her. Over three meters in height, his skin was covered primarily in scales, and his eyes glowed down at her with malice. His giant wings continued to beat the air and the broadsword longer than she was tall was brandished in her direction.

"You must be the one father wants." His muzzle opened in a grin.

She dove away from him without warning to head back towards the ship. As terrified as she was of the draconic figure, she knew that there was another one searching for Kasumi. A stream of fire made her recoil long enough for the dragon man to block her path.

"Not so fast little girl." He sneered.

'Guess it's a fight then.' She steeled herself and prepared to take the big man down.

X x x x x x

Kasumi struggled against two skeletons as they pulled her from her room. Even without muscle they were still able to overpower her and throw her to the floor. Quickly picking herself up into a kneeling position, she backed away into the wall, and held her hands protectively over Pepa who still slept in the sling at her hip. "What do you want?" She cried out.

"You." A young man's voice answered. Opening her eyes, she found a male dragon tiefling looking down at her. Wearing black armor with a large ax strapped to his back, he towered over her from her position on the floor.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?" She asked through tears.

"It's alright, really." He knelt down and held out a hand to her. "My name is Lethanial and they aren't going to hurt you." His eyes moved to the undead before back to her.

"What do you want?" She didn't take or slap away his hand, the horror of the situation still not setting in fully. The tiefling in front of her was handsome and the first one with a dragon ancestor besides herself that she had ever seen. Two dragon wings were on his back and he had a thin tail down to his knees. Four horns stuck up and backwards from behind his ears and his eyes were a deep red.

"You." He forcibly grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her to her feet. "Now come on, my brother Raxus is going to burn this ship."

"Let me go!" She struggled against his grip.

"I'm saving your life, now shut up and come with me." He added an arm around her waist and pulled her through the ship.

X x x x x x

Ranma's eyes widened and she shot straight upwards to avoid a horizontal slash from the man's sword. He wasn't just big and strong, he was also fast and skilled, and Ranma was struggling just to keep out of the way of his attacks. It didn't help that he was laughing constantly. Glancing back at the ship, she couldn't make out anything from the smoke at the bow of the ship as it burned. Any moment now and the neutral stones there would give way and the ship would plummet from the sky. Her momentary distraction nearly cost her a wing but she was able to shrink them down to medium size before they were cleaved from her body.

"Father will reward me for bringing you in." He laughed again. "Resisted his curse enough to have this much fight in you? Maybe he'll even let me have the pleasure of breaking you fully."

'Curse?' Ranma's mouth pulled back into a snarl. "So he's the one." Twisting out of the way over another attack, she was able to close the distance to get within his guard. His yellow eyes widened as she brought her sword upwards and across his face. Howling in pain, he fell away from her, and slashed wildly with his sword to force her back.

"I'll kill you!" He roared, a chunk of his muzzle cut off, and blood flowing freely from the wound.

"Think again." Desperately grabbing as much of her magic as possible, she had just formed it into a glowing red ball in front of her when his sword met it. The explosion sent both of them tumbling away, the dragon man falling towards the ground below. Ranma slammed down on to hard wood and bounced several times before coming to rest.

Struggling to push herself up, she had landed on the ship rather than fall to the ground far below. Getting upright, she found that she was surrounded by the undead, with none of the men who had been defending it in sight. The only ones she did see were now among the undead. Grabbing her sword that had become imbedded in the wood nearby, she pulled it out and returned it to it's scabbard before picking up a large poleax.

'Please be safe Kasumi.' The undead shambled towards her and she was about to attack when Kasumi was dragged from the inside of the ship by another dragon tiefling. "Hold it!" She shouted.

"Oh－ good." The man tightened his grip on Kasumi. "I was just about to leave and it looks like you can fly."

"Let her go." Ranma growled and kept watch as the undead backed away from her.

"I have a better idea, you come with me." He ordered and moved towards the edge of the ship. "Drop your weapons or I'll kill her."

Biting her tongue, she threw the poleax to the side. "Let her go."

"This ship is going to go down, she's coming with me." He tightened his grip on Kasumi to the point where she cried out in pain. "Drop your weapon."

Ranma's jaw tightened and she looked to Kasumi and the terror on the tiefling's face. "Alright." Gripping her sword hilt, she pulled it from the scabbard, and closed her eyes.

"Hurry up!" He demanded.

The undead around her jerked and convulsed as they crossed the barrier line. Ranma shivered as the holy magic passed over her and cast the strongest light spell she could directly in front of the man's face. He screamed and released his hand from Kasumi's waist to cover his eyes. Ranma was on him before he could respond and she sliced through the remaining arm holding Kasumi at the elbow. The man looked down at his severed limb in horror for only a moment before Ranma buried her sword through his chest.

His mouth opened and closed repeatedly but nothing came out as he staggered backwards, until he finally fell backwards on to the deck. His impact with the deck signaled the neutral stone at the front of the ship to finally break away lurching the ship to one side. Falling to her knees along with Kasumi, the other front neutral stone released, and Ranma watched in horror as Kasumi fell over the edge.

"Kasumi!" Ranma dove over the edge and accelerated towards Kasumi as she spun uncontrollably towards the ground below. Catching up with the other tiefling, she floundered with her grip, before finally grabbing Kasumi by the back. Attempting to pull out of the dive, her wings buckled, and her eyes were forced closed from the wind. Squinting, she saw that the ground was approaching far too fast to be able to pull out of her dive.

"This is going to hurt." Gritting her teeth, she opened up one wing, and spun them around so she would hit first.

X x x x x x

Author Notes

Check out my Deviantart page for something I did showing off some armor Ranma will be ending up with in a future chapter. I'm also working on one showing off Pepa's new look.

1 - Icebox is basically a refrigerator except it runs off magic.

2 - Purposely misspelled Nerima.


	9. Meandering

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

x

Ranma slowly opened her eyes as a sunbeam moved across her face. Blinking several times, she noticed immediately that few parts of her body didn't hurt. Her ribs felt like they were broken and her left arm was restrained by something hard. Rolling her head to the side, she squinted past the sun to look out the window, and saw that it was a cloudless day. 'Guess I'm alive.' She thought to herself, honestly surprised over that fact. Lifting her head up enough to look around she saw only a generic room. Aside from the bed, there was a small table with several drawers, and on top of that was a metal tray containing some medical supplies and a pitcher of water.

Attempting to sit up was a mistake and she hastily dropped back down on the bed. "Hey." She called out, her voice coming out in a dry whisper as she tried to reach someone out the open door. "Anybody there?" She tried again with more force. From outside the room she heard a chair slide across the floor and a moment later an older human woman dressed in a white nurse's outfit entered the room.

"You're up." The gray haired woman noticed happily. Bustling over to the side of the bed and giving her a quick visual exam. "How are you feeling?"

"Not well." She answered briefly, considering it equivalent to the beating she took once from a troll. "How long have I been out?"

"You're going to be fine." The nurse patted her gently on the shoulder. "You have been asleep for two days now."

"Where's Kasumi?"

"Your friend left just an hour ago. Poor dear has been at your side most of the time." Heading over to the table, the nurse poured her a cup of water.

"Thanks." Ranma had been just about to ask for something to drink. Gritting her teeth, she forcibly hauled herself up to a sitting position. The blanket that had been covering her fell away revealing a generic white gown and that her left arm was covered by a cast at a ninety degree angle.

"Easy." The woman quickly supported Ranma's back before tying a piece of fabric around her neck and arm to form a sling. "Dr. Nuara said that you have several bruised ribs and your left arm is fractured in several places. He was able to heal your wings and your broken ribs but it can be difficult with tieflings."

"What about Kasumi?" She was thankful that her wings had been healed, realizing that with how much they moved, she would be in constant pain. Ranma tried to give them a stretch but the action quickly aggravated her ribs so she stopped.

"She's fine, only some minor bruising now. You're both very lucky that you were inside the protective zone. Those horrible dead would have had you otherwise."

Since Ranma wasn't having the easiest time sitting up without help, the woman quickly moved over to the table, and pulled out an extra pillow to help prop her up. Ranma would never admit it but she was grateful for it, just sitting was proving to be very difficult. 'Of course, I have wings, and it's a fall that nearly does me in.'

"I'm going to go send for the doctor."

"Alright." Ranma nodded and watched the woman go. Alone, she had nothing to do but sit and notice the constant ache that would be plaguing her while she healed. Looking out the window again, she could see some of the city. Constructed from heavy stone and painted white, it reflected sunlight to appear even brighter.

'Okay－ I'm here, so now what?' Ranma realized that she had not exactly planned past getting to this place. There was the magical academy here that would have to be the first stop after she secured lodging. Kasumi seemed to have that in hand if she had been here for two days.

She dropped her gaze to her lap, realizing that she didn't even know when the next airship off the island would come. This may have been how she traveled with Genma but after inadvertently shifting her wings, she was reminded that she wasn't human at the moment. Her job prospects as a tiefling, in a town threatened by a Demon, could be very limited. She may have to make herself appear human in order to secure a job.

Growing bored with waiting and feeling weak from her forced slumber, Ranma carefully swung her legs out from the covers, and tried to stand up. Wavering on her hooves, her head spun, and she braced herself against the wall with her right arm. "I'm going to have to kick that dragon guy's ass for this." She grimaced as speaking aggravated her ribs.

"Get back in bed." A male voice commanded and Ranma was startled out of her thoughts enough to nearly fall over. Storming into the room was a short man with graying hair wearing a long white coat. "I hate treating infernals, every last one of you thinks you're unbreakable, and you can just walk out after a little rest." The man ranted and nearly shoved her back on to the bed. Before she could protest, he was pulling back her eyelids to inspect each of her eyes before feeling around at the back of her head.

"What gives?" She pushed his hands away.

"What gives?" He asked sarcastically, moving rapidly over to the table, and fretting with his hands over the various things on it before coming back to stand in front of her. "Two days ago I had to spend seven hours healing you away from the brink of death so if I say sit you should ask how long?"

'I couldn't have been that bad.' Ranma thought sourly.

"Yes you were that bad." The doctor seemed to read her mind and reached out a hand to poke at her ribs. Ranma immediately doubled over in pain. "To start, six of these weren't broken when you came in."

'Bastard!' Ranma cursed to herself, unable to unclench her jaw.

"If it wasn't for Lord Favian I wouldn't have even bothered. But no, he has some kind of interest in you. So live you shall."

'I don't know any Favian.' She didn't feel like talking to the doctor, who went about prodding her left arm without a care to its broken status.

"Yes yes, you appear to be healing nicely, all that work won't go to waste. Two weeks at most and it'll be impossible to tell you were injured." Straightening up the man seemed very pleased with himself. "Of course you have me to thank for that. Even with your infernal constitution hindering my direct healing spells."

"Gee thanks." Ranma would have been thankful if the guy didn't rub her the wrong way.

"Now be a good little infernal and stay in bed or I will have you strapped to it." He proclaimed and literally patted her on the head before storming back out of the room.

"I'll get out of bed if I want to." Ranma said haughtily and stood up just to show that. Unfortunately she ended up falling flat on her face as her exercised starved legs failed to hold her up. "Ouch." She moaned.

x

Kasumi sipped at her tea briefly before setting the cup down and looking out over the city from her seat on a balcony. Lutansk itself was such a beautiful city that she was deeply saddened by the threat it was under. Rolling plains surrounded the city leading into two different mountain ranges at the North East and South West sides. The Northern were dark and foreboding with several active volcanoes belching smoke and molten rock up into the sky. To the South was the former home of the Phoenix, a race of avian humanoids who had recently been overtaken and all but wiped out by the undead.

"I don't know how I can thank you, Lord Favian. If it wasn't for you－." She looked down at the fancy pastry on her plate and sighed. Kasumi was still shaken up over the events on the airship. It had been a miracle that only six had been lost in the attack. Most passengers had taken refuge within the cargo hold while Kasumi had panicked. The back two neutral stones had been enough to keep the ship from crashing to the ground.

"Nonsense." The older man's strange orange eyes twinkled with good natured amusement. "Your friend is a－ hero. Seeing that she and her friends get taken care of is only right."

"Still－ I feel indebted to you in a way that I fear I can never repay." Since being found near the crash with Ranma crushed and broken beneath her body, Favian had ensured that Ranma was not simply left for dead and that Kasumi had been given a place to stay in his own home.

Pepa had awoken shortly after being moved to the hospital and Kasumi was just as worried about the spell creature. The fairy had said nothing, choosing to stare intently at any object that caught her eye for hours at a time. But she seemed to be in good condition physically and was even eating and sleeping now.

"Then it is a good thing I will not ask for it." He turned to a servant who crouched down to whisper in his ear. "It seems your friend is awake."

x

Favian scratched at his chin and allowed the two tieflings to be reunited. Kasumi was asking Ranma questions about her condition and the small red head was trying to play off nearly dying as an everyday occurrence. He remembered his visitor from several nights ago, and had discretely searched her for any magical spells. The results of the search were that this girl had encountered strong magic before arriving in Lutansk.

The first was an abnormally powerful protection spell that would resist any magic used to change the girl's physical form. This contrasted with the shape changing magic that had been all but dissolved by the protection spell. The one he was concerned about was a nasty piece of work that he had removed as soon as possible. It wasn't a mind control spell per se but it would eventually break down the victim by depriving them of sleep and assaulting their mind with terrifying visions.

He remembered the figure telling him that the girl had a problem mortal magic could not solve but he saw nothing mortal, divine, or infernal magic would need to fix. Especially with the powerful divine protection spell in place. 'Dark figures who appear in the middle of the night should learn to be more specific.' He simmered but kept himself from showing his anger outwardly.

"Sorry to interrupt." He broke into their reunion before Kasumi could say anything about what had happened after Ranma had been injured.

"Oh－ I'm sorry." Kasumi quickly moved to the side from her position on the bed so Ranma could see him better. "This is Lord Favian."

"I'm an instructor here at the academy." He inclined his head slightly towards the girl. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got into a fight with a troll－ again." The girl answered. "The doctor said you're the one who had him fix me."

'What kind of life does this girl lead?' He couldn't be sure what kind of demon was her ancestor but if she was part Succubus then she was very strange. "And I've secured a place for you two to stay at the academy."

Favian was amused by the surprised looks on both of their faces. Kasumi had been staying in his own quarters and he had debated on whether it was a good idea to take her as a student as well. She had a rudimentary knowledge but had never been taught seriously. Being part dragon she had to have some ability hidden under years of neglect.

"You what?" Ranma asked incredulously.

"That is why you're here isn't it?" He looked between them.

"No, I'm under a curse." The red head answered.

"And you?" He looked to Kasumi, feigning ignorance over what magic Ranma was afflicted with.

"Well－ I originally just wanted to be able to talk to teachers here who knew my mother. But I would be honored to receive any instruction you would be willing to give."

"I see." These two were certainly different than the usual travelers to Lutansk. "What is your curse?" Ranma stiffened in response to his question and glanced nervously at Kasumi. "I took the liberty to remove the one making you have nightmares and if you mean that shape changing one then you don't need to worry about that much longer because that protection spell has all but removed it."

"That is my curse－ the protection one." Ranma glanced once again at Kasumi. "I am plane touched－ but I only found that out a couple months ago. That protection spell was put on me by a God after he turned me into this." She gestured down to herself as best as she could with one arm. "I'm not a girl, or a tiefling. I'm a guy." She finally concluded before adding a half beat later. "Human guy."

"Really?" His interest in this girl was definitely piqued now. "Tell me how this came about."

x

Ranma stared forward blankly and barely noticed the world around her. A few words from Favian had utterly decimated her optimism for finding a way back. She had explained how it had happened and he had flat out told her it was impossible to break the protection spell. Obviously the man couldn't know everything but to be told without any reservations that it was impossible to find a cure with mortal magic had hit her hard. Even though she was still battered and bruised, she had walked out of the hospital to wander the city.

She had spent all day visiting every temple she could find, begging and pleading for a God or Goddess to help her. Nothing she had ever done could possibly deserve this kind of punishment. If the divine were so great why did they remain silent? Why did one of their own do this?

It was getting late and night had fallen some time ago, but she had no clue how to return to the hospital. So she just sat alone on a wooden bench seat in a small temple, and occasionally tried to communicate with the deity it was dedicated to. There was no response, the God known as Razu remaining silent to her pleas.

"Excuse me, but I'm closing up now." A gentle voice drew her attention and she found an older man wearing a simple gray robe snuffing out the candles lighting the room.

"Could I－ just sit here a little while longer?" She asked, not wanting to go face Kasumi and see the pity in her eyes.

"Problems?" He asked and his eyes widened when he finally took a good look at her. "Oh－ I'm sorry, I just wasn't expecting a tiefling to be here. Especially not in Lutansk."

"Is that a problem?" Ranma half expected a yes answer to that question. Part infernal? Get out and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of fiend.

"A house of Razu does not turn away visitors." The man answered and took a seat a respectable distance away. "I imagine that there is a reason for you being here." He paused, his eyes going down to her arm held in a sling. "Word spreads quickly, you must be the one who helped defend the airship, and killed Lethanial. I do not think you traveled all this way just to visit my humble temple after such a grand entrance."

"Does your God ever talk to you?" She asked.

"Not with words. But I can feel his presence when I am doing something positive."

"I don't feel anything here." Ranma's eyes went down to her lap.

"Not everyone does. Is this your first time seeking advice from the Gods?"

"Yes." There had never been a reason for her to as a human and even less of one after becoming a tiefling. Finding out that there was no hope to be had in mortal magic was as good as reason as any to seek divine help for a divine problem.

"I've lived in this city for a long time. When the dead first started attacking there was a sudden influx of people seeking guidance and comfort. Far too many forced themselves to find what they were looking for, to justify whatever they wished."

'That's not helpful at all. These are the guys I have to find the answers from.' Ranma simmered, angry over the inability to find a quick response. "Is there a way to be more direct?"

"No one here works with such things. If your prayers are to be answered then you need to be willing to listen. Shouting, screaming, and demanding attention is the surest way to get only the sound of your own thoughts."

She didn't pursue that line of questioning further, deciding that she would have to look for worshipers of other Gods and see if they knew of a way. Ranma remembered how Kuno always talked as if his Goddess actually spoke to him but then again, Kuno wasn't completely right in the head.

"Maybe I could be of some help? What is it that brings you to Lutansk?" The man asked helpfully.

"A fool's errand." She answered before standing up and wincing as her bruised ribs protested the movement. "I should be going, sorry I kept you."

"No need to apologize. Have a nice evening young lady and I hope you find what you're looking for."

x

Stepping out from a back chamber, the caretaker for Razu's temple paused upon noticing that the candles he had been coming to extinguish were already out. "Well that is odd." Shrugging, he went to make sure the temple was locked up for the night. (1)

x

Shivering from the cold, Ranma didn't resist when the man who had crushed her hopes draped a white fur cloak over her shoulders. Her wings were trapped inside and it aggravated her ribs but the escape from the cold was worth the discomfort. The cloak must have been enchanted because as soon as it was in place she felt like she was sitting next to a pleasant fire. "Thanks."

"First lesson, dress appropriately for the weather." Favian joked.

"You come to laugh at the sex changed freak?" She asked without emotion and wavered on her hooves, unable to stay balanced for a moment.

"I will mock and I will torment you for any mistakes that you make, big or small. But I will not do so because you were－ violated by a God." He explained, venom entering his voice near the end.

"Thanks." She repeated, feeling like a heel once again for judging someone. "Why do you want to teach me anyways?"

"Because unless you get that God to change you back you're going to become very powerful and be targeted by entities who will use you for their own ends. So at the very least I will make sure you learn how to resist binding magic."

Ranma wanted to protest that such a thing would never happen to her but there was Ryoga. All it took for him to make her powerless was a couple bits of metal. There was that tracking enchantment that would have caused extreme problems if it hadn't been removed. Maybe she had just not thought about the possibility of it happening to her because she could change back into a human with Jusenkyo. But with that gone, she really was vulnerable to becoming bound to someone.

"Are the ones that attacked the ship being controlled?" She asked, uncomfortable with the thought of killing them if they were not able to stop their actions.

"Them? No. Those are the children of Ladon, the dragon attempting to take this city. You had the joy of meeting Raxus, and the one you killed, Lethanial. Which only leaves four others and every last one of them is as monstrous as their father."

"Guess I won't feel bad if I have to kill any more of them then." Ranma guessed that she had only killed one since Favian felt the need to point that out.

"Pity them because they never had a chance to be anything else. But that doesn't mean the world isn't better off without them." Favian nodded to a man as they walked back towards the center of the city.

"Master Favian, I was sent to find you." The man bowed his head respectfully and gave her a quick glance. "Master Varis wishes to speak with you in the council chambers."

"Tell him that I'll be there as soon as I've escorted my new student to her quarters." Favian answered and the man bowed again before hurrying off to perform his task.

"You mentioned that earlier, is it like an apartment?" She asked.

"Hardly."

In the center of the city there was a tiered layer that started at the highest level of the buildings surrounding it and encircled the barrier tower. To get there they had taken an elevator with a guard controlling it. Around the outside of the tier were buildings of various sizes all lit up brightly from the magical lanterns that lined the city. Inside of this ring was a sparse forest hidden from the outer city that obscured the bottom of the central tower. Ranma could hear running water and see several nearby paths that went inside as they moved along the outside of the forest.

"This is known as the park and it sits directly above the ley line. Channeling and molding mortal magic is easiest here." Favian explained, pointing to the left. "Only students and faculty are allowed, the buildings here are allotted for our use."

Passing by a pair, a boy and girl who were around ten years old, she stopped to watch as the girl cast a spell that caused the water in a bowl between them to rise up and form into a rose made of ice. After a moment the ice melted back into the water and it was the boy's turn to perform the spell. Ranma's eyes looked downward for a moment before she resumed following Favian.

"This is my home." The man indicated a long one story building with blacked out windows lining the entire side. "For privacy." He joked and with a wave of his hand a ripple passed over the glass making it transparent as it passed. Inside she could now see that it was a lavish home with large rooms and big furniture. The nearest room had a large fireplace in it.

"Your accommodations are next door." He pointed to the building to the right. This structure was also only one story but was noticeably smaller and unlike Favian's the fireplace was happily puffing out smoke. "Your luggage was recovered from the airship and should be inside. I recommend getting some sleep because tomorrow we'll begin. Night." He waved casually to her as he strolled away.

Physically worn out, Ranma nearly stumbled over the small step up to the door as she entered into her temporary home. Removing the cloak because it was pleasantly warm inside, she padded towards the room with the fire. Inside, she found Kasumi sitting on the floor in front of the blaze with knitting supplies in hand, and looking over her shoulder towards the doorway.

"Hey." Ranma greeted and gingerly sat down next to her fiancé.

"I'm sorry about your cure." Kasumi set what she was knitting down. "I know how much it means to you."

"I'll find a cure." She boasted. "If not here then somewhere else."

"That's good, stay positive."

"But for now I think I should lay down." Struggling to get up on to her hooves, she paused when Kasumi helped her. "I can do it."

"You're only injured because you saved my life. So just let me do something to help." Kasumi smiled and Ranma caught that she had once said something similar to the eldest Tendo sister.

x

Rubbing his fingers across the usually highly polished wood table, Favian frowned and rubbed at the dust that clung to them. It was a testament to how quickly this meeting had been called that the usual standards of decorum had been ignored. Arrayed around him were the twelve senior staff members of the academy and the council that decided matters for the city.

"Master Favian how could you think that this would be acceptable?" Dorik, a man in his early thirties asked petulantly one then two fingers. "Not just one, but two tieflings. One of them we could sense coming from across the sea and the other is part red dragon. Do I need to remind you what type of Demon is currently threatening our city? What type of Demon has just destroyed our last contact to the outside world for two months? What type of Demon has just wiped out the Phoenix to our South?"

Standing the man slammed both hands down on the table and slowly scanned the assembled council. "We are surrounded by the undead, assaulted by a dragon's spawn, and he wishes to train more of them!"

Dorik was stopped by the gavel of Varis, the elected leader of the council. Scratching at his long white beard, he took his time before speaking. "Master Dorik may be high spirited but he speaks the concerns of the council. At any other time we would have no issue with the training of these two girls and I hope that our concerns are wholly unfounded. But until such time that the city is no longer under threat, it is our decision that you will not train them."

"Is that it?" He asked, looking between several of them. "I am a senior teacher and I have been a member of this council for twenty years. Who I teach, when I teach, how I teach are my business and mine alone. Do you think I'm ignorant of our situation with an army at our gates? A situation that was made exponentially worse by your decision to send our meager military force on a suicide mission."

"Master Favian this is not about past actions." Another younger member named Broder interjected.

"Of course it isn't. Only my judgment is being questioned." Standing, he straightened out his robe. "My decision has been made and with the threat my two new students are under by remaining untrained, I find it despicable that you would wish they remain weak and needing our protection." His statement resulted in several members grumbling and others openly declaring him unfit for his position. The outcry came to a halt when Varis once again banged his gavel.

"It is your right as a senior teacher to choose and refuse any student." Varis said with a sigh. "As such we will accept your decision under the condition that they will be monitored."

"Monitor all you want." Storming from the room, he would see to it that every one of them would regret questioning him.

x

Three days later

Sitting on the ground with Kasumi to her right and Favian across from both of them, Ranma briefly stopped listening to Favian to try and move her cast bound arm. Another day or two and she would be able to have it taken off and then all she had to worry about was her bruised ribs. Her magical training with Kasumi had been slow, primarily it was relearning how to call up and use mortal magic. Before she had been using a mix with infernal energies and within the barrier it was next to impossible to project infernal magic outside of the body. So now she was filtering out the infernal to use a pure source. At the moment it made her weaker but she wanted little to do with infernal magic.

"Elemental magic is one of the simplest systems to learn but the hardest to master." Favian continued on, waving his hand over a sandbox between them. The material shifted and moved, forming into square with circles at the corners and one in the center. "Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water are the elements around the outside. For lack of a better term, the center represents the void. It's an incorporeal force that acts as a way to bridge the gap between and combine the other four."

"The best way to explain void is to demonstrate it." Holding his hand out in front of him with the palm up, a small ball of fire burst into existence. "Wind becomes fire." The fire solidified and became a rock. "Fire to earth." The rock lost morphed and became transparent, turning into water. "Earth into water." The shifting ball of water thinned and evaporated. "And water back to wind."

Kasumi clapped her hands together. "That was amazing."

"That was nothing." Favian dropped his hand back to his lap. "Simply controlling one of the elements at a time is child's play. Combining the various elements is the true strength of elemental magic. Incantations are very powerful but can only ever do one task. Now, gather up some sand because you'll have to change it between all elements before we're done for the day."

Gathering up a hand full of sand, she was confident that performing the task wouldn't take her very long. Listening as Favian explained the process of using this void element to transmute the sand, she hastily attempted the feat, and the sand exploded in her face. Wiping the coarse material off her face, she gave a giggling Kasumi a baleful look.

"Focus on the act, not how much magic you use." Favian instructed. "It doesn't matter how much power you have if you're incapable of performing the simplest spells." He said with a superior smirk.

x

Shifting her bundle to hang off of her shoulder better, Kasumi smiled to herself as she enjoyed the cool morning air. Ranma was still sleeping back at the home they were sharing and Kasumi was happy that her fiancée was getting some much needed rest. It didn't matter how tough the red head was, barely a week prior she had been subject to grievous injuries, and Kasumi could see that Ranma was still in a lot of pain. Patting her bag, she was looking forward to making a nice meal for dinner tonight.

'A good home cooked meal makes everyone feel better.' She thought happily to herself.

Her own recovery had been very quick because her injuries were only bruises and minor scrapes. Stopping as her mind flashed back to a few minutes after impacting the ground, she had to take several deep breaths. She had frozen up from the shock of seeing Ranma's broken body beneath her, the small red head laying completely motionless. Kasumi hadn't realized how much she cared for Ranma until she saw that her fiancée could be taken away from her. While she didn't know how she could repay Favian for everything he was doing for them, she knew that she could never repay Ranma for her sacrifice.

Any internal thoughts were cut off when something hit the building next to her with a soft crack. Looking down, she saw that it had been a small rock. "Ow!" Jerking as something hard struck her in the upper arm, she turned to find that there were several young children gathered together in front of a three story apartment building.

"Demon!" A little boy yelled and threw a rock that missed her. Other children in the group yelled slurs against her heritage and clumsily threw their own projectiles at her. In their haste only one of them hit her dress near her feet. (2)

"Where are your parents?" She advanced towards the children to scold them for their poor manners. Several of the less brave immediately screamed and ran up into the building. The three that didn't immediately run saw that their backup had left and hastily followed. They slammed the door behind them and she stopped briefly to wonder what strong but polite words she could give these children so that they didn't act so rude in the future.

She paused and reconsidered that course of action. Not that she didn't want to help these children grow up to be responsible and respectable members of society, but being so direct about it rubbed her the wrong way. Acutely aware of the other people in the street who had noticed the children's shouts, she decided that discretion was the better part of valor in this situation. She was nearly a block away before a city guard approached her.

"Excuse me ma'am." He was in his early twenties and looked like he had some elven ancestry from his tall stature and the points to his ears. Kasumi noticed odd patterns on the metal plates of his armor. Around the edges were black vines the curled and wrapped around themselves, but for some reason her eyes would slip over them, and they would be different when she tried to focus on that same spot again.

"Yes?"

"Can I see what you're carrying?"

"Of course." She shrugged and handed him her bag. "Is something wrong?"

"There have been some－ complaints." He briefly made a show of looking through her purchases.

"Oh, what kind of complaints?" Frowning, she had not received a warm reception here, but it had been primarily indifference and not hostility. A Dragon and his tiefling children were trying to take over the city with an army made up of the dead, Kasumi could understand their distrust.

"I was following you since you left the elevator so I know they're all frivolous. I just need to make a show of following up on the accusations." He answered and handed her bundle back to her. "I'll accompany you till you're back in the park. Just to be sure there isn't any more confusion."

"Thank you very much." She was grateful for the company and the he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. "My heritage was never much of an issue back home." Kasumi tried to strike up some conversation, having had little from the few shop keepers who had overcharged her for their wares.

"Mine as well." He answered. "But this city wasn't always like this. When I first arrived no one looked at me with suspicion. But that was before Ladon, back when the barrier was just a precaution."

"I'd like to repay you in some way for being willing to trust me. I'll be making a big dinner tonight, my－ roommate Ranma has a big appetite but there should be enough for another, if you want to come?" Kasumi glanced away, hoping she wasn't blushing. Here she was, inviting a man to dinner. "If you didn't have plans that is."

"Unfortunately, I will have to pass." He answered. "While I'm sure I would enjoy your company, you seem like a pleasant young lady, it would interfere with my duties to be seen as more than your guard."

"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that." She tried to explain herself but floundered for words.

"I know, but it's not always how you see it, is it?"

x

Sitting on the floor in front of a pleasantly burning log in the fireplace, Ranma unrolled more of a scroll detailing detecting magical forces. She would have preferred to sit on one of the comfortable pieces of furniture that was in the building but with her arm still in a cast she couldn't hold the scroll. Briefly pausing her reading, she gave Pepa a baleful look before going about her task. The semi-solid fairy was sitting to her right trying to read as well. Ranma had been curious on whether or not the spell creature was even literate up until she started to ask questions about things that were written on the scroll.

"Why do I have a tail now?" Pepa asked. While the fairy was apparently interested in the scroll, she also kept asking unrelated questions.

Ranma opened her mouth to berate Pepa for going inside of her somehow but stopped herself. "Karma." Pepa while being annoying wasn't being her usual obnoxious self and Ranma wanted to reward that.

The blue haired fairy grabbed the appendage in one hand to inspect and gave it several tugs. "I don't like it, I want to be the way I was."

"Welcome to the club." Choosing to squash any feeling of sympathy for the fairy who had literally done it to herself, Ranma continued to read on.

Reading was the largest part of learning magic so far. Several books and scrolls were given to her and Kasumi with theories, descriptions of spells, some history, and techniques that were at the moment impossible to decipher. Some spells required complex physical movements while most required a certain mental flexibility to perform katas within her mind in the span of a second.

The most complex spell she had come across required one of these mental katas with each word and the spell itself made up an entire scroll. She had subtly asked Favian how it was that someone as inept as Kuno could possibly perform such complicated spells with simple incantations. His answer was that it wasn't Kuno performing the spells but he was acting as a conduit for the divine power of the Goddess he served. This made those channeling divine and infernal magics very powerful but limited in what they could do. Mortal magic by contrast was normally quite weak but far more diverse.

Giving up for the moment, Ranma squirmed as she used her tail to scratch an itch between her wings. This one ability was almost worth keeping the appendage. She stopped quickly when she noticed Pepa imitating her. "Why didn't you go with Kasumi?"

"Hmm, I don't know." The fairy shrugged and with a flap of her wings was up and over the scroll to get a better look at it. "Kasumi is nicer but like she said, you're like my mom."

"I am not your mom." She clarified and put special emphasis on the word not.

"Creator then." Pepa conceded and landed delicately skip across the paper. "So shouldn't I be friendlier to you?"

"No!" Slapping her forehead, Ranma wondered how she could explain it so that the fairy would understand. "I mean－ if you want to be friendlier towards me, that's alright. But I'm not your mom or creator."

"Okay." Pepa looked down and chewed on her lower lip.

"Okay." Ranma nodded. "How about you help me out with something?"

Pepa smiled and the light intensity of her body increased. "What?" She asked excitedly.

"I want to practice sensing magic. Can you go hide somewhere so I can try to find you?"

"You just want me to go climb into a cupboard." The fairy pouted.

"No really, I'm going to try and find you." Ranma tried to reassure the spell creature.

"Alright then." Instantly darting off out of the main room, Pepa quickly vanished.

Ranma briefly considered doing something else and using this as a way to get some solitude. She remembered quite clearly that Pepa had always found a way to laugh at her misfortune. But maybe this was Pepa trying to turn over a new leaf? Even if it wasn't, Ranma was trying to get better at sensing magic so she would have to operate under the assumption that Pepa was being sincere in helping her. If only to further her own goals, she reaffirmed to herself.

Closing her eyes, Ranma relaxed, and focused on sensing the world around her. It was difficult with the ever present buzz from the barrier but she had the vague feeling of a source of energy in the home. Opening her eyes only long enough to navigate the home, she continued to narrow down where the fairy could have hidden. Pausing, she reached down to rub at her shins. Lately it had felt like she was walking on crooked surfaces even when it was a flat floor, and made it increasingly uncomfortable to stand in place for long periods.

Wandering around Kasumi's room, she suddenly pulled open a drawer, jostling the clothing within but finding no fairy. 'I could have sworn I had it.' Pausing, she realized that she was looking at Kasumi's underwear. Blushing, she took a further moment to enjoy the pleasant aroma being emitted by a bar of soap.

"Boo!" Pepa exclaimed, having pushed open the top drawer.

"Ack!" Stumbling backwards in surprise, she fell unceremoniously on her butt causing Pepa to burst out into giggles. "Don't do that!"

"Aww but it was funny."

"Just go hide again."

"Okay." Pepa gave one last giggle before leaving the room.

x

'Brrr it's cold.' Ranma shivered as she picked up her right leg to trudge through the snow. Being unable to wear shoes or boots meant she had no way to fight off the cold. Snow had fallen during the night and all through the day, leaving nearly a dozen centimeters of it for her to wade through in order to return to her residence after a day of training. Kasumi was almost completely unaffected by the weather, letting her wear little more than a light coat in this weather.

"Ranma, I know you don't really want to hear it, but maybe I could make you a sleeve for your tail to go into." Kasumi offered.

"I'm fine." She boasted, even though her tail was curling and shivering uncontrollably.

"I'll see if I can come up with something for your feet while I am making it." Kasumi went on, ignoring Ranma's denial.

"I said I'm fine." She crossed her arms in a huff, not wanting to take any further special measures for her inhuman features.

"Can I have one too?" Pepa asked excitedly from her place of warm inside Kasumi's hood.

"Of course, I can make you a cute little dress." Kasumi answered.

'Might as well just give her a sock.' Ranma grumbled to herself and slipped on a patch of ice. Her wings flared ineffectually inside her coat as she tried to catch herself, aggravating her ribs, and causing her to lose her focus enough to awkwardly twist her ankle as she crashed into the snow.

"Are you alright?" Kasumi asked worriedly, kneeling next to her.

"I just slipped." She admitted, feeling slightly unhinged over tripping over herself. Rubbing at her right ankle, she hated how her feet simply didn't work right. An entire life spent training on how to move with her body and now all that instinct worked against her.

"Maybe we should get them looked at?" The dragon tiefling suggested.

"Maybe." Ranma agreed with uncertainty. It was uncomfortable to walk on them recently and she couldn't possibly be the only tiefling who was doubly cursed with hooves. So maybe there were secrets she could learn on how to move with them better.

x

Three days later

"Kasumi I don't like this." Ranma fidgeted nervously as a Dwarf inspected one of her hooves.

"I dun like it much either." The Dwarf chuckled to himself speaking with a thick brogue. "But you're a fine sight fairer than my usual clientele."

Ranma barely resisted the urge to pull her foot from his rough hands. Grimacing in disgust, she did not want anyone to ever know for any reason that she was at a farrier to have her hooves cleaned. Kasumi just smiled reassuringly and patted her on the shoulder.

"You are the one who said that you were having trouble." Kasumi told her.

"I just said I was tired of standing around. You're the one who ran with it." Ranma protested.

"Not sure how you got to our age without needing this done fore. I'll just give ya a trim." Releasing her, he went over to a rack of tools on a work bench designed for his height and pulled out a set of sheers, curved knife, and a metal file. "Nothin to be worried about."

"Uh－ alright." She nodded nervously. Kasumi had tricked her into coming here after sneaking off to ask Favian if he knew of anyone that could help.

"Hold still now." The Dwarf instructed.

Ranma nearly jumped from her seat as he made a cut into the bottom of her hoof. He barely paid her any attention, merely tightening his grip to hold her foot steady as he continued to expertly remove material. She kept expecting the next cut to leave her bleeding and limping until it grew back but that moment never came. Finished cutting, he used the file to quickly smooth over the rough cuts. Next he moved on to trim the other hoof.

"Weren't so bad now was it?"

'Guess not.' It was still unnerving to have someone cutting off pieces of her body. Tentatively putting her weight down on her right hoof, it set down on the floor flatly, and the stress on her ankle was almost entirely gone.

"Well? What's the verdict?" The Dwarf asked while putting his tools away.

"A lot better." Ranma answered sincerely while bending sideways slightly so that she could look down at her feet without her breasts obstructing her view. Now that her hooves had been trimmed, her ankle pointed nearly straight down like when she had first been changed.

"That'll be a piece of gold then." He stated and held out a hand.

"Thank you very much." Kasumi told him and gave him the coin.

"Yer welcome." He answered. "My suggestion, not that hitten me coin purse is in my best interest, is if ya don't enjoy a clip then to walk upon hard surfaces more often. That'll slow down the build up. Maybe find yerself a flat grindin stone and flatten em out every so often."

Ranma pouted, realizing that her recent inactivity had been the cause of this. "Well thanks and uh－ could you not tell anyone about this?"

"Lass, you're a tiefling, I don't think anyone would much care."

'Doesn't that just put my mind at ease.' She groused.

x

One week later

Walking with her teacher, Kasumi drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She could hear Ranma nearby training and it reminded her of her shortcomings. She wasn't resentful but she was jealous of Ranma's rapid advancement. Since her ancestor was a red dragon, she should be able to perform elemental manipulation with ease, except she was incapable of moving past the most basic exercises.

"I feel like I'm only in the way." She admitted to Favian.

"You're not." He said reassuringly. "Manipulating the elements at a high level is simply not one of your strengths."

"But I'm part Dragon." Kasumi protested without thinking before realizing that she had slipped into being overly familiar with the older man. For some reason she found herself confiding in him as if he would understand her situation even though he was just a human.

"Stop thinking like that." He commanded and put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from moving. "This is why you aren't making the progress you want. When Ranma casts a spell, she is not thinking about how her mother should be able to do it. She is the one doing it. You can't rely on your ancestors to act for you."

Kasumi nodded her head. "You're right."

"Just relax and focus on your studies. You have it in you to be far better than Ranma."

"I do? But look at her." She motioned towards where Ranma was practicing. The red head was performing a rapid series of impressive spells and physical attacks at an invisible opponent. "I can't even light a candle."

"I didn't say you would be more powerful. A Succubae's nature is simplistic. Companionship, food, and any measure of pleasure is all that it takes to make their life fulfilled. Ranma has inherited that to an extent and so she is simple and direct. She dedicates herself to each task to the exclusion of the world around her. What is happening now is more important than what could be or what has been. But you－ you stop to think and it affords you a wider view of the world." Favian paused to allow her a moment of thought before continuing. "You will be better because while Ranma would walk around the world and overcome any hardship to accomplish a goal, you would realize that you need only turn around."

"Thank you for seeing so much in me." She answered, unsure if his trust in her abilities was warranted.

"Here." He drew out a note from his robe and handed it to her. "This is the only teacher of your mother's I found still in the city."

"Really?" Kasumi took it after a moment of hesitation.

"That's what I said." He laughed to himself briefly. "Take tomorrow off and go see her. I have a task that should keep Ranma occupied for the day. And it seems we have been spotted." His orange eyes shifted towards Ranma before he leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Remember, have confidence in yourself, not in what you are."

She felt his breath on her ear and she blushed at the brief instant of close proximity before he was already walking away at a brisk pace. "Thank you." She bowed quickly to him, flustered over being complimented.

"Hey Kasumi." Ranma called out as she approached.

"Hi." She greeted back, noticing the strangely relaxed way that Ranma was walking. Usually Ranma moved with a very controlled and stiff gait. But this time Kasumi saw only a smooth feminine sway accented by the added length caused by her inhuman feet. The only time that Ranma had moved like that was when under Nodoka's charm. While she kept a smile on her face, Kasumi internally marked this as something to keep an eye on or possibly bring up with Ranma later.

x

Shortly before

Pivoting on her hoof perfectly, Ranma was able to execute a quick kick that would have broken the jaw of her invisible opponent if he existed. Her ribs along with her arm were fully healed and she was able to focus on training her body back into condition. She could already tell it would be a longer task as a female, having noticed the drastic decrease in her strength a long time ago, and the way the same amount of work resulted in less result. Ranma found it too depressing to consider that she was being hurt by both being female and part Succubus. So she focused on the progress she had made.

She may have lost a degree of strength from her injury, and it did seem very slow in returning to that level but her magical training was beginning to more than make up for it. Drawing a hand across her chest with the palm facing outwards, she dropped down into a crouch before sweeping it out to the side. In front of her a wave of force cut through the air like a scythe before abruptly vanishing. Any snow that still lingered was violently thrown up to mix with the large flakes that were slowly descending from the sky. If she couldn't have the same level of brute force then she would be more skilled and with a greater range of options open to her.

Driving both palms into the dirt beneath her, she felt the lines of connection that ran through the material. Areas of density, moisture, dryness, and heat all caused their own reaction. Channeling power into a chosen path, loose dirt exploded upwards in a one meter circle a short distance away. Hanging for a moment, the loose material coalesced into small spears before raining downward with enough speed to embed deeply back into the dirt.

Straightening up, Ranma released a breath slowly, and magically erased her destructive practice. Twirling her hoof in the dirt briefly, she contemplated how to push herself. Even being limited by the barrier she found it hard to exhaust her reserves of power without performing spells that quickly grew too large for the city. Rolling her shoulders and briefly stretching out her medium sized wings, Ranma considered taking her training outside the wall.

'Then again.' Holding out her hand with the palm up, she caught snowflakes as they fell, and then melted on her skin. The snow that had been on the ground had melted the next day when it had warmed up, and now the weather appeared to be swinging back to cold once again. She had been working out for over an hour now and it was getting late. Her day had been spent focusing on fine control exercises and she was mentally drained. Seeing Kasumi watching her while talking to Favian, Ranma decided to call it a night and start up her training again tomorrow morning.

x

'Alright Ranma, confidence, confidence.' Shrugging her shoulders, Ranma stared at the doorway, and tried to mentally prepare herself. 'Gotta make a move sometime and Kasumi isn't going to be the one to do it. Besides, I'm the man here.' Feeling her breasts jostle as she knocked on the bathroom door, Ranma slightly amended that to mentally the man with the form of a woman being temporary.

"What is it?" Kasumi asked, accompanied by the sound of water moving.

"Kasumi－ uh－ that is, can I come in?" Ranma asked, not sounding nearly as confident as she wanted to be. There was a long pause before Kasumi answered.

"Well－ alright." The Dragon tiefling answered hesitantly.

Ranma's face lit up in joy momentarily before she schooled her features back into neutrality. Entering into the moderately sized room, she saw that Kasumi had positioned herself as to hide her body behind the wall of the bath. Ranma herself was clad in only one of her male sized tunics, which is what she usually wore around their home. Except this time she was nude underneath.

The bath area was devoid of any piping, all the water being conjured and heated as practice. Even without running water, it still had an area set aside for cleaning and then a bath large enough for two set down in the floor with a small raised rim around the outside. The floor and halfway up the walls were made with white tile while above it was a pale blue stone.

"Yes?" Kasumi asked patiently, cocking her head slightly to one side.

She didn't immediately answer, her eyes making a quick trip down Kasumi's neck and shoulder to where her body met the tile before she caught herself and forcibly focused on the tiled floor. "I was just－ wondering if－ we could share the bath?" Tracing little circles on the floor with her right hoof, she cursed herself for being so apprehensive. "It's kind of hard to um－ wash my back, and I could wash yours. If you wanted?"

"Oh." Kasumi pursed her lips in contemplation. "I'm nearly done with my bath－ so maybe tomorrow?"

Ranma was expecting it to be rejection until the very end. "Sure－ tomorrow." She nodded, feeling let down but excited about the prospect of moving forward with Kasumi in some way. "I'll let you finish up then." Spinning quickly on her hoof, she felt the hem of her tunic pick up a bit too much as her tail swung in her hurry to get out of the room to avoid screwing up the moment.

"Ranma, why aren't you wearing any underwear?" Kasumi asked innocently, causing Ranma to pause, her tail tip twitching nervously back and forth.

Modesty wasn't her strong point and spending time with Nodoka had done nothing to increase it. But after that had fallen apart, she had made a point to at least match everyone around her in the level of skin showing. She wasn't dumb, it made plenty of people uncomfortable to be around her if she was showing off her body in socially unacceptable ways. However, with Kasumi she felt embarrassed about it for some reason, even though their first meeting had been with Ranma in the nude. "Er－ well if you said yes then I would be getting clean to take a bath, right? I was just thinking ahead." Laughing nervously, she scratched at the back of her head. "Well, I'll let you finish up, and take mine once you're done."

"Okay, I'll leave the water for you."

"Kay." She gave off another nervous chuckle before quickly backing out of the room.

x

The next morning

Approaching a set of doors next to Favian, Ranma gave the two soldiers standing guard to the side a brief glance before coming to a stop. It was easy to get agitated in this place because it was near the center tower, making the barrier strong enough to aggravate skin. As soon as she was done here, Ranma was going to spend the rest of the day at the outer wall.

"Remember." Favian drew her attention. "Dorik in particular will try to draw your ire. Do not take his bait or you play into his hand."

"I got it, I got it." She waved off his concern, already knowing that they had chosen this place to try and play with her head.

"It may not be your strong point but I know you have some skill in diplomacy so just remember that you hold all the cards."

"I said I got it." She didn't pause as the door was opened by the guards and she stepped inside. Immediately the two doors closed leaving her alone with the city council. There were twelve of them sitting around a half circle table. There were no windows to the room, leaving the lighting to candles placed around the room underneath decorative glass. Ranma knew the soft red glow from the candles and the partially dark room were meant to intimidate her but she would be more afraid of seeing a bunch of Drow over twelve older men.

"Greetings Miss Saotome." An elderly man greeted cordially, his long white beard barely moving with his mouth. "I am Varis, council head."

Ranma ignored being addressed as miss and bowed her head towards the man. "Sir."

"Why are we wasting our time with Favian's pet infernal?" A man in his late thirties or early forties blurted out with a sneer. "We should be discussing the issue with that orange eyed fool personally, not by proxy."

"Master Dorik, do you have something to say?" Varis asked as if the man had not just spoke up.

Ranma now knew why Favian had given her some warning. She wasn't used to mortals being openly hostile to her condition and if she hadn't been prepared for harsh words she may have responded in kind.

"Yes, what do we have to gain from speaking to this malformed creature?" Dorik stood up and addressed the council members. "We know that Favian is training her in dangerous magic for some purpose we do not know. Now it's perfectly understandable that she should be taught to resist binding magic. But this goes above and beyond that."

"Master Dorik the council already shares your concerns about our colleague's instruction of the girl." Another council member started to say before Ranma interrupted him.

"I am not a girl, I am under a curse." She started to explain, only to be stopped by a chorus of chuckles. "What?"

"We can see you are under no curse." Dorik snidely laughed again.

"Miss Saotome, please remain silent unless you are addressed." The elderly Varis scratched at his bird, looking away in thought.

Simmering over being rebuked, Ranma glared daggers at Dorik, and she started to get the feeling that she was being thrown to the wolves. Favian had explained that they were looking for reasons to try and bar her training. A good half of the council he said were in Dorik's pocket and would go along with whatever he wanted. But without going against the established rules, they would have to have unanimous agreement to have Favian stop giving her instruction. Considering their current attitude, she doubted it would take much to get them to just do it anyways, rules be damned.

"Who are your parents child?" A man nearly as old as Varis asked, altering the subject. "Where are they from?"

"Genma－ and Nodoka Saotome. They're from Minato" She answered, briefly wondering just how much Nodoka would dislike being included as a Saotome.

"Do you know of your infernal ancestor? What manner of demon they were?" The same man who had asked about her parents continued.

"My－ my mother－ and she's a Succubus" Ranma stuttered after a moment's hesitation, her face reddening at the reputation Succubae had, and how it would be now applied to her. Her statement caused several of the council members to burst into laughter.

"You expect us to believe you were born a man?" Dorik scoffed. "A Succubus having a son! How absurd!" He declared incredulously.

"I was born a man!" She shouted at him. "I am not a liar!"

"Miss Saotome!" Varis smashed a gavel down into the table with a resounding crack loud enough to make half the council and herself jerk in shock. "You were told to remain silent unless addressed. You will get no further warnings."

Ranma cringed, as she saw with growing clarity exactly how they viewed her. In their eyes she was not to be trusted because of her infernal heritage and because she was currently female, she had no say in their decision. Any questions for her were to simply confirm what they already believed. It was a sickening revelation and one that she had been able to mostly ignore since being changed against her will into this form. A woman and a tiefling, her voice carried no weight in this part of the mortal world.

"Sir?" She bowed her head slightly towards Varis with all the deference she could muster. Ranma's stomach turned with the act of giving this man the pleasure of seeing her be submissive. "Master Favian told me that you wanted to see me, not why." She lied, feigning ignorance.

"To decide your fate, child." Varis answered, his voice dropping the hard edge, and talking to her as if she was unable to fully comprehend the situation. He didn't elaborate any further and Ranma got the impression that there was a hint of a threat implied by fate. "You may go."

Ranma didn't let her face turned to an angry scowl until after she had turned around. Favian was waiting outside, looking as impatient as she was angry. She nearly slapped his arm away as he put it around her shoulders to lead her away. Ranma didn't remove his arm, accepting the brief comforting embrace, and cursing her body for desiring to feel more.

"Fear makes good men do stupid things." He took his arm off of her shoulders with a single pat. "When you prove them wrong and save this city, it will be no different. You're stronger than them, don't let it get to you."

"What?" She stopped, turning to look up at the man.

Favian glanced around to make sure there would be no one to hear. "I will teach you a spell that will let you slay Ladon with a single blow. You just need to get close enough."

"Get close enough? I never want to go near that bastard." As much as she wanted to get back at the Dragon for what he wanted to do to her, she knew better than to get involved with one of the ancient creatures.

"He wants you." The man brought up both hands to grip her shoulders. "Everyone else is just fuel for his army. No one else can get close enough and no one else has the raw power that you do."

"Still." She didn't know how to respond when being told that she could kill a dragon. The confidence he had in her made it hard to focus.

"Still nothing. I won't lie, Ladon is incredibly dangerous, and you may not be able to catch him off guard. But eventually he will find a way into the city. You've already killed one of his children so he has two reasons to go after you and once he's set his mind on something he won't change it."

"So I don't have a choice." Ranma looked away, unable to fully realize the position she was now in. A dragon on one side and a group of powerful old mages who wanted her gone on the other.

"You do, it's just the other choices are unacceptable." He smirked. "In the meantime try to enjoy yourself. Don't put off tomorrow what you can do today."

x

"This better be worth my time." Dorik sneered to the guard leading the way to the battlements on the wall surrounding Lutansk. "What do you think is so important to require my attention?" He was a council member and he was not at the beck and call of some cannon fodder soldier. He was still busy trying to persuade that dope Varis to get rid of the red headed harlot.

"Sir." The guard didn't say another word, standing to the side and indicating that Dorik should enter into a dimly small alcove. Frowning as he roughly pushed past the man, he sat down on a wooden bench, and crossed his arms irritably.

"And?" He asked impatiently and his eyes narrowed at the guard who retreated without a word. That's when he felt a chill slide up his spine and a shiver ran across his body from his toes to his head. The feeling ended abruptly when the sharp point of a blade touched the back of his neck.

"Master Dorik." A refined female voice purred in his ear.

"Just the human we were looking for." An identical voice came from his other side.

"Reye－ Leye." He gulped, realizing that they had him at a distinct disadvantage. They were both cloaked in shadows and the only thing he could see were their dimly glowing red eyes. "How did you get in the city?" He asked the two shadows that blocked his vision.

"We have our ways." Reye answered from his left. "Father wishes to know what you've been doing?"

"He has asked us to make sure you're fulfilling your end of the bargain." Leye added. "That you're not slipping."

"It's not up to me." He straightened up, not wanting either to sense weakness. "Favian has taken them as students and that worthless Varis is thinking on it." He sneered at the last part, knowing the old man was just delaying and had already decided to allow her instruction to continue.

"Favian." Leye hissed. "Father will not be pleased."

"He's not invincible, why do you not just kill him?" Dorik asked, his question causing Reye to immediately slam him up against the wall and pin him there.

Her face, mottled with scales hovered a short distance from his own. "You should worry about your own hide human." She snarled, revealing thick pointed teeth. "Father has plans for Favian that require him to be alive. He is not your concern. Your concern is how are you going to make up for your failure?"

He swallowed slowly. "I thought I should ask before I made any plans on my own." Dorik wasn't stupid, one mistake was bad enough, making more to cover it up would be worse.

"Father has decided he has waited long enough, in thirty days, on the night of the new moon, you will bring down the barrier." Leye instructed and from what he could see, the pair vanished into the darkness like they were made of mist.

"Sabotage－ the barrier?" He gulped again, realizing that he had suddenly become the lynch pin to the siege. Failure would not be an option and he did not know if he could succeed.

x

Author Notes

Well it has been a while, hasn't it? Been busy with work and just didn't have any inspiration.

1 - Hopefully it's obvious what was going on.

2 - Orphans created by Ladon and his children.


	10. Vicissitude

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

* * *

Taking her coat off, Ranma released a heavy sigh, and leaned against the doorway to her temporary home. After attending the meeting with the city council she had spent the rest of the day performing exercises to draw forth the specific magic Favian wanted her to use. Running a hand through her bangs and sighing once again in resignation, she sat down to wipe the snow from her hooves with a towel Kasumi kept nearby for that purpose.

"Kasumi, you alright?" She asked after finding her fiancée sitting next to a fire in the main room.

"I suppose." The blonde answered, not picking up her head from the floor. "No— not really."

Fidgeting briefly with indecision, Ranma sat down slowly to the right of Kasumi. She was about to ask if Kasumi wanted to explain what happened when the other tiefling decided to hug her. Freezing up, Ranma stared down in confusion at Kasumi's head resting on her left breast.

"Kasumi?" Ranma asked in a small voice, unsure what she should do.

"I'm sorry, I know I'm making you uncomfortable." Kasumi shifted briefly to position her arms better around Ranma's waist.

"No, it's okay." She tried to relax and put an arm around Kasumi's shoulder. "So— what happened?" Ranma wanted to focus on her fiancées answer but it was exceedingly difficult to ignore Kasumi's position on her body. As well as the thundering of her own heart. She also had to look past how much bigger the eldest Tendo daughter was compared to her. Kasumi was nearly a full head taller than her, making her feel almost like a child when put up against her fiancée.

"I met a charming woman who offered me a wonderful cup of tea before recalling how my mother was thrown out for her cruelty to other students."

"Like what?" She asked without thinking.

"Please— I'd rather not remember what she said. I just want to sit for a while." Kasumi said calmly.

"Alright." Ranma nodded to herself and patted her fiancées shoulder in an attempt to be reassuring.

They ended up sitting together for nearly a half hour before Kasumi finally released her and slid a short distance away with her face colored with a slight blush. Ranma also felt her face heat up again now that Kasumi was no longer holding her. She ended up awkwardly playing with her tail while searching for something to say.

"So— um— feel better?" She asked.

"Yes, I just needed— some kind of— I'm not sure what exactly." Kasumi's blush increased and she looked down at her lap. "I'm sorry, I'm a grown woman, and I shouldn't have done that."

"Done what?" Ranma laughed nervously. "Just a hug right? Never hurt anyone. Perfectly alright." She fidgeted again with her tail.

"Not just that, regardless of how my mother acted while she was here, it has no bearing on the parent I knew." Kasumi sat up straighter and with more confidence.

Ranma decided to risk asking a question that had rapidly entered her mind upon hearing that Kasumi's mother may have been an even more evil version of Nabiki. "Are you sure you really knew her?"

"No." The blonde shook her head. "But when we return I'll be asking my father some very specific questions."

"That sounds like a good plan." She agreed, curious over specific examples of what Kasumi's mother had done but if the blonde didn't want to talk about it then she didn't want to push too much.

"How about you? Did your meeting go well?" Kasumi changed subjects from herself over to Ranma.

"Not at all." Ranma answered and partially pulled her legs up towards her chest. It felt strange enough to put weight on her heels that she paused to consider just when walking on her toes had become normal. "All they did was tell me what they were going to do." She left out that Favian wanted her to kill a Dragon. "If I was a man they would have listened."

"One of the joys of being a woman." The Dragon tiefling appeared to catch Ranma's meaning and it's relation to the composition of the council. "Men deciding things for you."

"Women aren't the only ones who get that." Ranma said defensively. "Neither of us chose to be engaged, remember?"

"No we didn't, but you did get to pick from the three of us."

"Point."

"Not that I'm too upset on how it turned out." Kasumi admitted with a shy smile.

"Me either." She smiled in return excited that this wasn't a one sided relationship. Favian's advice not to wait came back to her and she decided to go all out. "About that."

"Yes?"

"Kasumi—." She shifted on to her knees and shuffled forward to be closer to the eldest Tendo daughter before taking a deep breath. "I know neither of us really chose this engagement and I know I haven't really taken it all that seriously. But— I really— like you." She blurted out, failing to use stronger words to describe her feelings for Kasumi. Her face felt like it was going to explode from her blush and she looked down towards her lap while trying to get control of herself.

"I really like you as well." Kasumi answered her statement after a moment of confusion.

"Kasumi." She was able to get enough control of herself to look back at Kasumi's face and found her peering back at her with a pleasant if vacant smile looking back. "Can we be— really engaged? I don't mean like that stupid thing our dads thought up, I mean— between us, just you and me."

Ranma's throat went dry, her whole body tensing, and hanging off any syllable that Kasumi might utter in response. Asking this question left her as vulnerable as when she had let Nodoka fully into her life. The blonde tiefling held her heart in hand and could lift or crush her with a word. When an answer wasn't immediately forthcoming, the nervousness she had been feeling settled over her in a crushing wave, and she looked away from Kasumi.

"Sorry I asked." She choked out in a tiny voice and moved to leave but Kasumi stopped her by placing a hand on her forearm.

"You surprised me—." Kasumi finally said. "I really like you as well." Looking away shyly, the blonde finally took her hand off Ranma's arm. "And I would like to be your fiancée, but I—."

Ranma was so elated by Kasumi's positive answer that she had interrupted her with a kiss on the lips. It was awkward and she bumped into the blonde a little too hard but it was her first kiss. Kasumi stiffened and quickly pushed her away. "What's wrong?" Ranma asked in confusion. She may have been moving a little fast but the blonde had reacted as if Ranma had just spit on her.

"Ranma, I want to be your fiancée but not—." Kasumi paused. "It's just— you're a woman right now."

"I'm really a guy." She protested, recoiling to put a hand over her heart. Her physical gender was clearly that of a woman but she was still a man where it counted.

"I know that but I'm not attracted to women."

"You—." Ranma floundered for something to say. "You don't see me as a man." Her eyes widened at the realization.

"I do, I really do." Kasumi moved forward to put a hand on Ranma's thigh.

"Then what's wrong?" She demanded. "You say yes then you push me away like I'm some kind of leper."

"I'm sorry." Kasumi said in a small voice, pulling back to clasp both hands in her lap. "I guess I need to change my answer to no— but when you're a man again it can be a yes." The other tiefling said it as if it should make her feel better.

"I am a man." Ranma declared, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she drew in deep breaths.

"Not physically and—."

"And? And what?" She interrupted.

"And it doesn't always seem like you are mentally." Kasumi admitted.

Ranma's jaw dropped and she slid away from the older tiefling. "Well— I guess it's good you got that out."

"Ranma I really do love you." Kasumi reached out to try and grab Ranma's hand but she pulled it away.

"But you can't look past this." She gestured down towards herself.

"I'm sorry." The blonde answered her accusation and slumped into herself.

"I'm sorry too." Ranma's voice broke as she said it and she quickly hurried to leave for her room as her eyes started to tear up. The one person she thought would be able to look past her physical form, couldn't. Closing the door behind her she slowly fell to the floor hugging her body. Cursing her existence and the God who had done it to her, Ranma fought to keep her emotional state from completely taking over.

* * *

Kasumi felt like she couldn't get any lower. Shuffling towards the redheads room with small hesitant steps, she searched for a way to fix this situation. Ranma had trusted her enough to propose and she had effectively thrown it back in the gender cursed teen's face. Kasumi should have been able to handle it better, but she failed to see a way to do so. Ranma faced the real possibility of never being able to go back to his real gender. So by putting a conditional on the proposal felt like a complete betrayal.

She knocked lightly on Ranma's door and waited impatiently for some kind of response or at least a noise to indicate that the redhead was there. After hearing nothing in return, she knocked again, and called out Ranma's name. Not receiving an answer, she slowly peeked in through the door, and found that the room was empty.

* * *

Ranma's wings flared momentarily before she landed in a crouch out on the snow covered ground surrounding Lutansk. Using a sleeve to wipe tears from her eyes, she straightened up and fixed her cloak to drape over her entire body. Far in the distance she could make out the bright orange glow of lava as it was spewed forth from the volcano Ladon called home. Between her and the Dragon's home she could make out forms moving in the darkness. She was out near the edge of the barrier and was completely on her own.

Freeing her wings once again from their confines, she flew towards the dark forms. Occasionally she could catch a glimmer of glowing red eyes. As she drew closer more and more eyes turned to look directly at her. Landing once again in the snow, she drew her hands up in front of her and began gathering magical energy into her palm. She could feel it reacting violently with the barrier as soon as it was no longer within her body. Her hands were surrounded by a bright red glow that increased with intensity until she had to squint her eyes. Before she closed them, she could see hundreds of forms waiting in front of her. With a cry of anguish she pushed it forward, putting everything she had into the expression of her pain. A great gout of flame exploded out in front of her to blind her view.

Collapsing from the effort, she breathed heavily, and stared at the destruction she had just unleashed. Everything for nearly a kilometer had been vaporized. The super-heated ground glowed with an orange light and small fires burned from the small amount that remained. Releasing her rage had felt good but it hammered home how monumental the force Ladon commanded was. This island had been the home to battles from before recorded history. Souls of the dead trapped in endless battle; their bodies preserved through the magic soaked ground. The mass graves of hundreds of armies laid in wait for Ladon's forces to unearth them.

The destruction she had just caused had only taken out a tiny fraction of the dead in just this one area. "I can't do it." She admitted to herself. "I can't do this." She added more for her life or what little hadn't been torn from her.

"How unexpected." A guttural voice broke into her sorrow. Looking up quickly, she took several quick steps away from the large form that stomped through the snow towards her. Raxus' face was still mutilated from their last meeting but he seemed otherwise unharmed from the explosion and fall. His sword was affixed to his back and the pale white light cast from the city lights illuminated his black armor. "Poor lost little girl, crying in the snow, don't let your eyes run dry yet because you have so much more pain to experience."

Moving faster than he had before, Raxus closed the distance between them with a single powerful leap. Ranma was barely able to roll to the side in time to avoid his fist as it passed through the point where her head had been a moment before. Regaining her feet awkwardly due to her hooves, she was not able to avoid the tip of his boot striking her under the chin.

Her head cleared long enough to realize she had landed in a snow drift. She was given no time to get out before a black armored hand gripped her by the throat and hauled her up and out of the snow. Dangling in front of her attacker, Ranma's head swam and she was still too disoriented to come up with a plan of attack or strategic withdrawal. Her mind instantly cleared as Raxus thrust his sword through the material of her right wing. Ranma screamed in pain and struggled against his grip as he slowly twisted the blade.

"I expected so much more." He sneered, removing the blade from her body, and bring her close to his face. "How insulting!" Raxus shouted, striking her in the face with an armor plated fist. "Every moment since you shamed me I've dreamed of crushing you!" Again he hit her, shattering her nose. "I trained without end and when I finally get my hands on you, you're nothing!" Another punch and he released her to drop to the ground in a heap.

Dimly she could hear him say more over the ringing in her ears as she brought a hand up to feel her broken nose, covering her fingers in blood. He said something else about someone approaching, but she knew in this remote place at this time of night, no one would be coming. Glancing at the distracted Raxus, Ranma decided to use the opportunity.

Her right wing nearly wouldn't open as she took off as fast as she could towards the city. Ranma didn't make it far before Raxus swung into view directly in front of her. Attempting to stop, her wing gave out, and it saved her from being impaled. Raxus' sword pass through where she was and Ranma fell face first into the snow and slid to a stop.

"You've grown so weak!" Raising herself up enough to see blood dripping from her face into the snow, she began to pull out her remaining magic to blast Raxus. The Dragon tiefling laughed once before slamming his boot into the back of her head. "The only reason you're still alive is because Father wants you. A little whore like you isn't worth having around after this insult."

The foot was removed from her head before he used it to kick her in the side. Rolling through the snow she came to rest on her side. Coughing out some blood, she could still move but no longer had the will power. Her life was over, why not let it end? Raxus hated her, a small amount of goading and he wouldn't be able to stop himself from killing her.

"I can't understand you." She choked out and spit a mouthful of blood out.

"What did you say?" Raxus sneered.

"This—." Ranma struggled up to her feet. Aside from her wing and nose, Raxus hadn't done any major damage, she was just completely drained. "Whore." She spat out the word. "Took your face."

The giant tiefling's eyes literally glowed red with hatred but instead of lashing out with blind rage he calmed down. "No— I'll let you die once I've grown tired of listening to you beg." The Draconic head of Raxus turned towards the city. "These interlopers on the other hand."

She turned her head enough to see four flying forms touch down, three male, and one female. Each wore a small amount of plate armor over enchanted fabrics. 'The Phoenix?' Ranma had seen them only briefly. The small handful of the bird winged humanoids that remained had been given their own section of the city to stay in. Their race was all but dead, lacking the numbers to repopulate.

"Butcher." The woman with white hair said with enough hatred that Ranma could feel it. She held a long ornate staff in front of her with a crescent shaped blade on the top. "Murderer of my people."

"No— not yet, there are still more of you to kill." Raxus' face twisted into a cruel smile before he opened his muzzle wide and coughed up a fireball towards one of the males. The woman intercepted it by plunging the blade of her staff into the ball of flame where it instantly froze before dropping to the ground.

"You die tonight monster!" The woman screamed and the four took to the air to charge Raxus.

'I can get out of here.' Ranma realized, with Raxus' attention no longer on her, she should be able to get back to the protection of the city. But watching the four Phoenix struggle to stay alive against the monstrous tiefling made her pause. Her entire body was screaming at her to run away but she couldn't just abandon the Phoenix to be slaughtered. Ranma cursed the Succubus part of her that was terrified over entering a fight, even if she was injured with no weapons and facing an opponent who outclassed her physically. (1)

'What am I thinking?' Realization hit her like a plate armored glove to the face. Ranma had been relying on her own internal reserves of magical power, but in this area she had the near inexhaustible ley line to use. Drawing it forth was hard, the barrier hindering her, but eventually it did come. Slamming her palm down on the ground, she created a shockwave that traveled out to where Raxus was fighting the Phoenix. Around that point the ground caved in to gather the needed material to create the spear of ground, transmuted into obsidian that exploded upwards.

Raxus noticed too late to stop it from slamming into his stomach before the spear twisted back downwards. Ranma dug her fingers into the dirt and her attack wrapped up the monstrous tiefling. He struggled to free himself, but was only able to break a portion of the obsidian off before he was crushed against the Earth.

"Gotcha you bastard." She smiled, putting her other hand to the ground, to cause five more smaller obsidian spears to rise up around Raxus' dazed form. One last pulse of magic and they plunged down, her intent to impale him repeatedly. They never hit because Raxus was able to break his bonds at the last moment.

"You!" The giant yelled, clutching at his side where Ranma could see that she had hit him in the ribs, puncturing his armor. Raxus glanced down at his wound and briefly pulled his hand away. The Phoenix took the opportunity to renew their attack, clumsily striking at Raxus, who was hard pressed to defend himself. Raxus looked like he wanted to say more but instead he breathed in deeply before breathing out a gigantic wave of fire to push back the bird people. (2)

Ranma shielded her eyes and waited for the heat to dissipate. When the flames finally stopped burning from their position in the air, Raxus was gone, vanished back into the darkness. Sighing in relief, she slumped down to her knees in the snow, and let her wings hang down to the ground. Feeling her nose, she found that it was already healing, and the cartilage wouldn't need to be reset.

"You there!" The female Phoenix called out, landing with a soft crunch of snow in front of Ranma.

"What?" She snapped, both angry and relieved that she would get to see another sunrise. Upon looking up she paused in saying anything else due to the pointed end of the woman's staff being a centimeter away from the tip of her bloodied nose. "What do you want?" Ranma asked, looking past the crescent shaped blade to the white haired woman's face.

"That monsters head on a pike." The woman spat to the side and withdrew the magical staff from Ranma's face. "And it seems we have similar goals. I am Kiima." She introduced, holding out a hand ending in wicked looking claws for Ranma to take hold of.

"Ranma." She took the offered help up, not knowing too much about the Phoenix or their customs. They were decent fighters and together they had been able to stay alive against Raxus. Kiima's pure white wings expanded briefly before folding up to look like a cloak over her blue armor. "What are you doing out here?" She asked. (3)

"That." Kiima pointed to the destruction Ranma had caused earlier. "Is something that gets noticed. The landlings are just slow." The clawed hand motioned behind Ranma to where a group on horseback with torches were riding out.

"Oh." Her shoulders slumped upon seeing Favian.

* * *

The next morning

Ranma's nostrils flared, picking up the smell of burning wood, and waking her up from her slumber. Shifting underneath the blanket, she slowly drew herself up to a sitting position, and stretched out her arms and wings. Wincing as the stitched together membrane was pulled apart. She had spent the night in Favian's home, unwilling to sleep under the same roof as Kasumi.

Looking down, she frowned, and brought her hands up to retie the clasp keeping her tunic shut to hide the generous swell of her breasts. She paused and dropped her hands back to her lap, deciding that hiding her cleavage wasn't going to achieve anything. They weren't going to go away if she denied their existence and hid them. It was a simple reality of living in this body.

"If you were looking to die, you weren't going to find it out there." Favian said while standing over her offering a cup of water. Taking it, she didn't miss how his eyes lingered on her exposed cleavage. "Kasumi came to me as soon as she saw that you were gone."

"Looking to die?" She snorted after taking a drink. "Ranma Saotome— is already dead." Ranma finished sadly, her voice catching.

"Really? When did you die?" The older man asked seriously.

"Yesterday, when one of the last people to see him, no longer recognized him."

"Well then I guess today would be your birthday, so what's your name?" Favian asked jovially.

"You want to make jokes?!" She demanded angrily, hopping up onto her hooves, and getting into his face as much as she could with her short stature.

"Ranma Saotome is only dead if you want him to be." Favian explained calmly. "So? Do you want to give up that life and start a new one? You have plenty of choice in the matter."

"Choice? I have no choice! If I had a choice I wouldn't be a tiefling or a girl! I wouldn't have people that I've known for years ask who I was! I wouldn't need to remember that I'm the girl in a mirror! I wouldn't be having this conversation! I would be me!" She shouted in his face.

"I wish there was some way I could wave my hand and undo what was done or knew of someone who could, but there isn't, and you already knew that." He answered, nonplussed by her anger, and motioned with his right hand to a table set for two. "Sit, breakfast is being prepared, and not one of your problems stops you from having a decent meal."

Her anger fizzled at the offer of food and a pressing biological need she would have to take care of first. "Fine."

Ranma sat slowly picking at the high class food in front of her. She was sitting on a wooden chair to reach the table. She had known that Favian was from money, big money, but he normally didn't show it off like this. Servants brought in whatever he asked for and they waited on her with equal attention. It was awkwardly silent other than the clink of utensils on fine porcelain.

"Ranma." Favian broke the silence and waited for her to acknowledge him. "This may be a sore area of discussion but— your devotion to Kasumi is quite admirable."

"Devotion is only getting me so far." She mumbled.

"But if you had gotten farther. What would you have done?"

"What do you mean?" She asked in confusion.

"Kasumi said that you kissed her. Did you intend to go further— physically?" He asked suggestively.

Ranma's face heated up after realizing what he was getting at. "I don't know." She admitted. The kiss had been completely spur of the moment. Kasumi was attractive in her eyes. Ranma could look past her differences and see the attractive young woman any man would be happy to have as a wife. Kasumi's was physically beautiful and her personality was equally as attractive as far as Ranma was concerned.

"Say you did— you and Kasumi kissed, you fondled one another, and it lead to activities that I'm sure would make your mother exceedingly proud." The elderly man went back to eating casually.

Her mouth hung open as her mind couldn't help but start to imagine an activity with Kasumi that would make Nodoka proud. Snapping her mouth shut, she covered her face with her hands, and rested her elbows on the table. Her face felt like it was going to explode and the more she thought about how embarrassed she was the more she couldn't help but think of why she was. "It's not like that." She finally got out.

"Not to intrude upon the fantasies I've helped induce but have you considered that you would also be a woman in that situation."

Ranma's embarrassment evaporated instantly at that thought. Her fantasies had left out that fact or at the least had glossed over it. Nodoka had hinted and talked about self-pleasure as well as actions to take with others. But she had never touched herself in that way and she was wildly uncomfortable imagining anyone else doing so.

"Ah—." Favian snapped his fingers to have a servant remove his plate. "Perhaps you are starting to understand the position you put Kasumi in."

'A little.' She admitted to herself. "That doesn't make it hurt less." She admitted out loud in a tiny voice.

"For either of you, now quit letting your food get cold, and start thinking on how you're going to mend your friendship with Kasumi. I took you both on as students and it would be a nightmare for me if you two can't even be in the same room."

* * *

Kasumi was heading towards the front door the moment she heard it open. She had been sitting with Pepa, who had tried to brighten her mood, but Kasumi didn't want to be distracted by the simple creature's antics. Ranma looked like she had been thrown around in the dirt. Her hair was a mess and completely out of its normal ponytail. Ranma's clothing was in much worse condition, with several rips and tears, and the neck of the tunic was left open exposing some of the girl's chest. Far more distressing was the stitched up cut in Ranma's right wing and the fist shaped bruise on the redheads face.

"Oh Ranma what happened?" She forgot about the prior night and was instantly trying to bring the smaller girl inside to try to make her comfortable. Kasumi only moved Ranma a single step before she was gently pushed away.

"I don't want to talk." Ranma walked around her stiffly. "I just want to be alone."

"Alright." She allowed Ranma to pass by her to head towards her room. Kasumi had to forcibly stop her hands from nervously wringing in front of her.

"I'll go see what's up." Pepa volunteered trying to fly off after the red head.

"No!" Kasumi halfway yelled before catching herself. "I mean no, let Ranma have some time alone."

"Okay." Pepa hovered in the air dejectedly, her recently added tail hanging limply behind her.

x

Ranma felt tired. More emotionally rather than physically. While she had been able to sleep well the night before due to exhausting her magic reserves. She didn't want to deal with anymore discussions about her feelings for the rest of her life. Sitting in the dark of her room with the door closed, she snorted once before shifting to one side in order to sit with her tail going the other way. The last thing she needed was to have a tail cramp.

There was simply too much going on in her life right now, even if two were not immediately intruding on her life. The council seemed to have decided that she could continue learning from Favian and they weren't going to carry out their vague threat. Not that she trusted Dorik and his cronies to leave her alone. Her problem with Ladon was the least of her worries, being safely behind the barrier. That left just one giant and pressing concern to consume her thoughts.

'Kasumi.' She sighed, trying to sort out her complicated feelings towards the Dragon tiefling.

What if she did get intimate as a woman? Was she able to? What was the best way to go about it? She had pointedly ignored Nodoka whenever she had discussed such things. Bringing her right hand up underneath her tunic, she let her fingers trail along her silky smooth skin before gently cupping one of her breasts.

'Definitely doesn't feel bad.' She thought to herself, having only touched her chest while bathing. Hearing a bump from outside the room, she hastily removed her hand from her tunic, and held her breath as she expected Kasumi to open the door. When nothing further came except the muffled voices of Kasumi and Pepa talking about something, she finally started to breathe again, and decided to find something else to focus on.

She made it only a short time before her curiosity overcame any other thoughts.

'It's not right—I'm a man—and—and—." Her protests trailed off in her mind. As a boy she had touched herself on occasion when the time or mood presented itself. What teenage boy didn't? And what teenage boy wouldn't want to get a hold of a body like hers? But this wasn't the same as that. She wasn't a boy touching a girl, she was the girl touching herself. It made her heart flutter in excitement but her stomach became queasy from fright at the same time.

Hesitantly she brought both hands up to cup her large breasts. 'Wow, they're bigger than my hands.' Squeezing awkwardly at first before finding a satisfying rhythm, she was rewarded with an increasingly pleasant tingling centered on them that spread partially through her form before another part of her anatomy became noticeable. Chewing on her lower lip and growing bored with the sensations from her chest, Ranma slowly ran her hand down the gentle slope of her stomach until it reached her pubic hair.

'It's just a test.' Reaffirming to herself that she needed to test if she was capable of self-pleasure as a woman. She couldn't expect Kasumi to make that jump if she couldn't. Ranma only briefly made contact with the strange, totally female area between her legs before her desire evaporated. For some reason she couldn't do it, she couldn't commit to it. She was afraid of taking another step down the path of accepting her situation. However, she did face the possibility of remaining in this form for the rest of her life. So how could she be with Kasumi or any other woman, if she remained in this emotional and physical limbo?

* * *

Four Days Later

Ranma hated the status quo that had been established between her and Kasumi following the failed proposal. She kept herself distant while appraising her feelings towards her roommate. Any conversations were usually short and to the point. Kasumi continued to prepare food for both of them and they usually ate in silence. Pepa had a brief stint of trying to act as a go between but had quickly grown bored with the lack of result. Ranma could understand how frustrating the situation was.

The whole thing was made infinitely worse by the arrival of an unwanted monthly visitor. Kasumi remained helpful on the subject. Ranma wasn't used to dealing with a feminine cycle and it was helpful to have the other tiefling's experience available. Even if any questions came with endless amounts of humiliation made worse by Kasumi's calm and reasoned answers. Another problem Ranma had was that it all felt mundane after the initial shock wore off. Do this, do that, go through a fight with her emotions, and repeat.

Pausing in her physical training, she stood breathing heavily, and barely able to keep a vertical base from exhaustion. She was also disappointed that even with throwing herself into strenuous training, that her strength still wasn't returning. Compared to most people she was still very strong but she knew that she was nowhere close to Raxus. She just wasn't willing to give up yet on getting her strength back. But in the back of her mind she knew that the amount of time being put in was getting excessive for the lack of return.

Kiima had become a sparring partner of sorts. The Phoenix woman was an agile fighter but not the kind to simply stand and fight, which was the sort of partner Ranma sorely needed. Kiima was a hit and run fighter, using flight and speed to overwhelm her opponents. Her defenses were minimal along with her strength. With Ranma's help, the Phoenix woman had actually become better at a straight up fight but Kiima had not made much progress in the short time they had been working out together. Kiima also lacked Ranma's stamina, having left hours before.

A strong gust of wind nearly blew her over and caused her to start shivering uncontrollably from the cold. Deciding to quit for the day, she used a burst of air to blow away the snow that had covered her cloak before lifting it with another gust to her waiting hand. Wrapping it around her shoulders, she and headed for her temporary home. Not many others were out in the park at the center of the city. The weather was getting worse with high winds and large storms that would leave the city coated in a thick layer of snow shutting it down until crews could clear it away with magic.

"My lady, may I have a moment." A man's voice called after her.

Ranma paused and turned back towards the one who had called to her. He wasn't wearing a guard uniform and didn't look like a student. "What is it?" She asked, not used to random people approaching her.

"My master requests that you come to his home."

"Who's your master and why?" She shifted to put her weight on one hip, her feet now being protected from the cold by the enchanted cloak.

"My master is Instructor Dorik, he wishes a private meeting." He bowed his head slightly before indicating a crest on the lapel of his black knee length coat that she had seen on Dorik.

Ranma's upper lip curled up in a brief disgusted sneer. "There's nothing I want to talk to him about." She answered.

"Please my lady, it will only be for a brief meeting." He bowed his head towards her.

"I don't care." She said with a snort.

"I'm sorry." He raised his right hand for an instant and Ranma caught two male forms melt out of the woods just outside her vision. "Please do not cause a commotion. Master Dorik only wishes to talk."

Taking a small step back to get a better view of them, she heard a twig snapping behind her and she paused, realizing that there were more. She may have been worn out from a day of training but she could probably take them. There were some guards who were close to her former level but not her skill. But she had no clue about these men. It wasn't even possible to get a good look at the two she could see, some kind of magic was being used to hide their presence.

"Fine." She seethed and brushed her bangs out of her eyes, deciding that discretion was the best course of action. It would also give her more time to recover from her training if the need arose to fight. The shadowy figures melted back into the darkness without making another sound. "Lead the way."

Dorik's home, which would more accurately be called an estate was on the far side of the park from Favian's and Ranma's. A thick stone wall obscured the lower story from view while the second and third were free to loom over everyone passing by. Constructed with heavy red stone, it's tall windows were hidden by slatted wooden blinds, and the roof rose up into sharp points. It was dark and foreboding, clearly meant to impress upon the visitor that someone of power lived here. She was less than impressed though, knowing that the place was in fact the home of a worm.

The man who had invited her to visit opened the door to allow her inside before he offered to take her cloak. Ranma declined the offer and made a point to track as much snow in with her as she could. Escorted to the dining room, she idly noted that while the outside was very large, the interior rooms were quite small. Dorik was leaning back in a high backed, ornately carved wood chair, and smirking like he had just won a great victory. Her stomach growled at the smells that assaulted her nose. While the airship had helped bring in much needed supplies, everything was still being rationed or was completely unavailable. Dorik must not have cared because the spread of food before him was enough to feed five people.

"Leave us." He ordered his servant.

"What now?" She asked and threw up her arms in mock defeat. "You got me here."

"Tell me girl, what is Favian teaching you?" Dorik reached forward and gathered up a bronze chalice to take a drink of wine.

"Are we friends now? What makes you think I would tell you anything?" She asked incredulously.

"Because I will share with you what I know about Favian." Laughing to himself, he bit greedily into a lamb shank, leaving a large smear of grease across his chin. "Or did you actually think he was training you out of the goodness of his heart?" Wiping his face off with a cloth napkin, the man rose from his seat and walked around the table to stand before her. "Still not interested in hearing me out?"

"Quit wasting my time." She answered without any hesitation.

"I've heard that Succubae can get quite possessive of their owners." His mouth twisted into a cruel smirk.

"Well then it is a good thing I'm not a Succubus." She struggled against the urge to lash out at the man physically.

"Heh—how true, you're merely born of one. A little temptress who happily keeps her master's bed warm for him."

Ranma's hands balled into fists and she wanted desperately to knock every tooth from his mouth and then cut out the vile tongue but was barely able to restrain herself. "The only bed I keep warm is my own. Tell me your big secret before you find out just how little a Succubus I really am."

"I am the one holding the cards here girl, so hold that tongue for other uses. Isn't Favian wonderful, taking in two wayward tieflings. Teaching them magic and letting them think they are our equals." Almost hesitantly he brought both hands up to her shoulders and pushed her cloak back to slip down her back. Dorik smiled lecherously at her chest that was still glistening from her work out. Ranma simmered in anger but the glimmer of truth in his comments about Favian stopped her from murdering him.

"He has no homeland, no family, nothing but great wealth, and knowledge in the arcane arts that he could not have gained in ten lifetimes. We are besieged by a Dragon and his kin. A Dragon he negotiated a fragile truce with. Up until your arrival that is. And now he's training you to go off and fight this beast. It's almost like he's going to deliver you right into his service."

Ranma smiled before trying not to laugh. Covering her mouth with a hand, she couldn't stop herself from giggling uncontrollably. "That's it? That was your great big reveal? You put on this big show to try and intimidate me— for nothing?"

Dorik's face twisted into a look of pure rage before he settled back into a superior smirk. "Try to intimidate? I guess I'll just have to try harder." Purposely moving back several steps, he stopped with his hands clasped behind his back.

"May I go my lord?" She asked sarcastically, bending down to pick up her cloak. Ranma enjoyed the angry tick in Dorik's right eye almost as much as if she had blackened it with a punch.

"Do your ears work? I just said I had to try harder—slave." Bringing his right hand forward with his fingers open, Ranma barely picked up the surge of energy before he made a fist. Choking, it felt like a vice had closed over every joint in her body, locking her in position standing straight up. Struggling, she found herself unable to move in the slightest; even her breath was cut off. "A woman is always better when she doesn't talk." Dorik laughed to himself as if he had just told some great joke.

"What—are yo—do—ing?" She choked out, struggling for every breath.

"Something I wanted to do since the moment I laid eyes on you." He answered, casually strolling forward he circled her like a vulture while trailing his hand along her shoulders. Shivering in disgust, she could do nothing to dislodge his fingers. "You don't dress like a woman so it has made my imagination run wild with thoughts over the body that is hidden underneath." He leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Wild."

Ranma's eyes widened in panic as he vanished from view behind her. Dorik grabbed a hold of her shirt next to her left wing and with a sharp tug ripped the fabric to reveal the slave tattoo on your shoulder blade. "Tisk tisk, does your owner know that you're so far from home? Were you a good slave? Satisfying every whim? I'm sure you're quite experienced."

Her body shook with attempts to move and rage at her inability to properly respond to the monster holding her captive. Dorik let his hand wander down her back and briefly feel up her backside. Increasing her struggles, she tried to draw forth some of her own magic to try and overpower the spell holding her in place but nothing happened. "Too bad it's not in my plans or else I would have to try Favian's toy out."

"I'll—kill you." She choked out.

"I think not. You're powerful, I'll give you that, but that's all you have. As a magic user you could be summed up by one word— pathetic." He moved to stand back next to his table just as a small bell next to the door jingled. "Ah, my guests are here, time to finish my preparations." Shoving his palm forward, Ranma's tunic was ripped from her body along with the extra one she was wearing for warmth underneath. "You're free." He smiled gleefully as the hold over her suddenly ended causing her to drop to her knees.

"What?" Her arms shook as she tried to move. But her muscles refused to act, leaving her unable to do anything but quiver ineffectually. Heavy footsteps signaled the arrival of Varis along with two other council members, escorted by the servant who had lead her here originally.

"Master Dorik." Varis greeted as he stepped in the room. "Miss Saotome, what are you doing here?" Ranma tried to explain but she was still struggling to breathe and get her body to work right.

"It's a good thing you came when you did." Dorik greeted the man gratefully. "This girl is unfortunately living up to the reputation of her species. Trying to lure me into sex for some nefarious purpose."

"Is this true?" Varis asked sadly.

"How could it not be? She doesn't even have the decency to hide her nudity from us." Dorik broke in before Ranma could get enough breath for a retort. She quickly grabbed her cloak and wrapped it around herself, too angry to be embarrassed or come up with a reasonable explanation, she ended up just kneeling on the floor clutching the cloak closed and overcome by her conflicting emotions.

"Why is her blouse in tatters?" One of the other council members asked, noticing the shredded remains of her clothing.

"She is quite strong, I needed to use a fair amount of force to repel her after she grew angry at my refusal." Dorik explained without hesitation.

"Master Dorik, would you provide her with something to cover herself and an escort so she can return to her home?" Varis questioned the man who had set her up.

"Of course." The man nodded his head and motioned for one of his servants to do the work.

"I'll speak with Favian in the morning." Varis sighed heavily.

Ranma couldn't stop herself from shaking or stop the wetness gathering in her eyes. "He did it, it was him." She tried to explain ineffectually. None of the men who had arrived with Varis looked like they wanted to give her the time of day. "Please—he invited me here." She looked to the elderly man, hoping that she could make him understand. "It's a setup."

"I'll discuss the matter with Favian in the morning." He repeated more firmly, nodding to the servant who had brought her a new tunic. Ranma wanted desperately to attack Dorik but looking between the men that had arrived and the face of her attacker, she couldn't bring herself to do it. All it took was Dorik waving his hand and she had been completely at his mercy.

"Don't touch me." She snapped at the attendant and stood up forcefully. Ranma felt like she was finally recovering from the spell Dorik had used on her but the newcomers all had their minds set. Stomping out of the room with as much dignity as she could muster, she finally let her head drop to stare at the floor, ashamed of herself for being taken advantage of.

* * *

Nerima

"Saotome, are you sure your wife doesn't want to come stay with us?" Soun asked his best friend in the world as they sat together playing a game of shogi. He had never realized how much Kasumi had done around the house. Without her calm and loving influence things were breaking down all over the place. Akane was trying her hardest to fill her sister's position but she lacked the experience and the temperament to learn the homemaking craft.

"I'm sure."

"Do you think my little girl is alright?" He asked, eyes tearing up slightly at the thought of his poor innocent Kasumi off on an adventure.

"I'm sure."

Soun narrowed his eyes, finally noticing that Genma wasn't paying attention to him. "You've been lost in your own thoughts, my friend. Perhaps you would share?"

"I should have gone with them." The balding martial artist sighed. "The boy will slack off too much without me around to push him."

"He better not! He has my baby girl to protect!" He announced when suddenly the nearby outside door broke off the hinges and let in a frigid blast of winter air. Soun struggled with Genma to get it back up but the hinges themselves were completely destroyed so he hastily grabbed some supplies to board it up.

"An ill omen, Tendo." Genma nodded to himself.

"Agreed." There was an unnatural chill to the air.

"Good job boys, saved me from finding another room." An old voice spoken up followed by the sound of a match being struck and a pipe being puffed. Soun turned with Genma at the same slow crawl to see a nightmare made flesh. Sitting and happily smoking his long pipe was the dread master Happosai. The ancient gnome, well over three hundred years of age was no more than fifty centimeters in height but his diminutive size hid the true horror of the creature in front of them. "It's a cold winter this year, that's for sure." (4)

Neither of them could speak, frozen in place at the horrible vision that lay before them. They had blown him up and left him to rot in a cave, their lives should never be darkened by the gnome again. The small humanoids could live to well over four hundred but Happosai had survived without food or water in a sealed cave for over fifteen years. The power of the Master's evil was truly horrible if it allowed him to remain alive after all this time.

Happosai let out a deep breath of smoke and glared out at both of them through his wrinkled eyelids. "Don't tell me you two aren't happy to see your dear old Master?"

* * *

Lutansk

Dunking her head under the water, Ranma felt a brief sting from the hot water on unprepared skin before she rose back above the surface. Wiping the water from her face, she brushed her bangs to both sides, and leaned back against the side of the bathtub. Sighing in contentment, she let the hot water soak away the chill that had set it from a day spent outside in the cold. Bringing a hand back up over the water to play with some of her scarlet bangs, she resolved to get them trimmed as they were getting quite long.

Kasumi had been distracted when Ranma had returned so she was able to avoid any discussion on why her tunic had been missing. She was tired of discussions. She was tired of people prying into her life. She had made a mistake with Dorik and it was done with. In the morning she would have to deal with the full scope of the man's scheme and then life would go on. There really wasn't any reason to get worked up over it. No, no reason at all.

Frowning at Pepa, who was able to muscle her way through the door to fly to the center of the room, the small fairy fluttered for a moment before coming over to land on the edge. "Are you okay?" The spell creature asked worriedly, eyes wide and panicky.

"Out." Ranma pointed to the door.

"But you're sad, why?" The blue haired fairy hopped forward several steps with a brief flutter of her wings.

"Because I can't find a moment for myself." Pointing again at the door, she hoped that her other housemate would take the hint.

"Is that why you're crying?" Pepa floated up off the tile to hover within arm's reach. The portions of her body made up of light fluctuating with wild pulses.

"I'm not crying. I just had my head underwater." She scoffed, feeling strangely calm about her current situation.

Pepa's face scrunched up in concentration and with a moment of effort she created a mirror to hang directly in front of Ranma. Ranma raised an eyebrow, having never seen the fairy cast an actual spell. Her hair was indeed wet but her face had dried off except for twin tracks of tears coming from her eyes. Ranma blinked rapidly and wiped at them. It made no difference as they were instantly replaced with more. "What's going on?" Ignoring Pepa, she quickly kept wiping her eyes dry even though they wouldn't stop tearing up.

"Stop, please stop." Pepa said finally grabbing her attention by pulling on one of Ranma's fingers.

"There's something wrong with my eyes." She decided and was going to get out of the bath until Pepa hugged her fingers.

"I can feel it—it hurts." The fairy whimpered, nuzzling her head against Ranma's hand.

Ranma normally would have pushed the spell creature away but she could feel her aura reacting with Pepa's. The fairy's earlier question of why was she sad reverberated within her head. She could see Dorik and his hate filled eyes leering at her vividly but it grew fuzzy around the edges. The man's form dissolved into one that would be etched into her mind for eternity, the God who had changed her. All she could feel was an intense hollow ache throughout her body. The sense of loss that she had felt upon first becoming a girl washed over her once again, multiplied by the feeling of helplessness that Dorik had made her experience earlier.

Reality snapped back into focus along with the sound of her sobs echoing around the bathroom. Curling up in the corner, she didn't even try to fight control of herself; she couldn't have if she tried. When she next became aware of the world, she was no longer in the water but hanging on to Kasumi. A half hour? An hour? She didn't know how long it had been but the room was cool even though it had been warm when she had last been aware of her surroundings. Her full body sobs had stopped, leaving her alternating between whimpering and coughing. Ranma saw enough that she had soaked Kasumi's dress and they were still in the bath area. Kasumi was whispering soft nothings to her and gently rocked her back and forth. Ranma relaxed against the larger girl, imagining for a moment that she was with Nodoka, and every promise her mother had made was true. All too soon that illusion evaporated to leave a hollow feeling.

"Ranma, are you feeling better?" Kasumi asked, noticing that she had calmed down.

"No." Her emotions were exhausted, but there was nothing to feel better about.

"What happened?" The Dragon tiefling asked, ignoring that Ranma did not want to talk about the events that had lead up to this situation.

"Please—I don't want to talk about it." She didn't feel like she would lose control of herself again but she didn't know how to explain it to her fiancée. 'Former fiancée.' She amended.

"Ranma, please tell me. I just want to help and I know it's been hard but I'm your friend. Please trust me." Kasumi implored.

"Please." Pepa joined in, having been on Ranma's shoulder the entire time without her knowing. The fairy's light was solid now but occasionally it would dim in a ripple that traveled her whole body.

"Fine." She sighed and was about to try and explain but was interrupted by Kasumi.

"Um— Would you mind putting some clothes on first?"

"Oh." Ranma took a moment to remember that she was nude before blushing and moving away from Kasumi, confused over why the other tiefling was always so concerned about clothing when there were bigger issues at hand. "Did you want to get changed as well?" She asked, pointedly looking at Kasumi's soaked dress, and wanting to drag out the time before talking.

Kasumi nodded in response. "That sounds like a good idea. I'll be in the living room when you're ready to talk."

Ranma didn't watch Kasumi leave, remaining on the floor, and struggling to find the willpower to get up and get dressed. Pepa remained nearby, silently watching her with a relieved expression on her face. Rising up to her feet, she caught sight of her face in a nearby mirror. Her eyes hurt along with her throat and she had to wipe her nose off. Grabbing a comb Kasumi kept nearby, she roughly combed at her unruly red locks at first before easing into gentle strokes. It was still damp and would be for several hours. Long hair was something she was familiar with, having never had it short except her bangs. Plenty of boys growing up had teased her for it up until she had retaliated. She did feel a certain pride in the unnaturally bright red color and the simple act of combing it helped calm her down further.

Finally free of all tangles, she quickly toweled herself off, and threw on a black tunic that ended just below her knees. After pulling on fresh underwear, she paused, and held up the pants she had brought. Except for the ones Michiko had purchased for her, none of her pants fit properly. The primary reason for that was the tail currently dangling behind her. Folding them up and draping the pants over her shoulder, she decided to go out as is. Her tunic was long enough to be a dress and it was perfectly acceptable for her to walk around without pants. Ranma preferred pants but no ill had come from sleeping as she was dressed now.

Ranma made it to the door and froze for nearly a full minute with indecision. Sighing, she unfurled her pants and put them on. It was cold and so she should dress appropriately. She had no reason to hide her shapely legs but Kasumi wouldn't be interested in seeing them anyways. Which was too bad, Ranma would love it if Kasumi wanted to see her body.

'Wait.' Ranma paused again to rethink that before shrugging it off and going back to appraise herself in the mirror. Her eyes looked better and her nose no longer ran. Bright red hair cascaded halfway down here back in a gentle wave. Her body was completely covered by her black tunic with grey embroidered lines running along the hems. Her clothing was so large that it was almost able to hide her figure. Which was a shame because her body was amazing. She would have to find a belt so she could at least tie the waist in.

* * *

Kasumi smoothed out the front of her dry nightshirt as she stepped into the living room. It was starting to get late so she lit several candles and threw some more firewood on to the fire. Glancing at the hallway leading to the bath, she wondered what was taking Ranma so long but didn't want to try and rush the cursed teen. Tapping her tail against the floor impatiently, she nearly jumped out of her scales when someone knocked on the door. Peeking through the window before opening, she was relieved to see Favian had come over.

"Where's Ranma?" He asked impatiently before she could greet him.

"I'm right here." Ranma answered, moving around the corner in black clothing and hair unbound. Pepa was flying along next to Ranma's right shoulder. The redhead looked at both of them apprehensively.

"Explain why I am getting summoned to discuss your conduct." Favian demanded angrily, storming into the home to sit down on a chair in the living room.

"Nice to see you too." Ranma flinched at Favian's tone and slowly followed, hooves clacking on the floor at an even pace. Kasumi followed and sat down on the two person couch next to the other tiefling.

"You went to Dorik's home, why?" Favian's orange eyes bore into Ranma, who couldn't meet his gaze. Kasumi held her tongue at the way Favian was treating Ranma. She had just spent a great deal of time helping to calm the red head down and didn't want to see Ranma fall back into that state. Kasumi had pulled Ranma from the bath after hearing the other girl's crying and had sat with her for almost an hour.

"Because he threatened me and I didn't feel like fighting at the time." Ranma answered, shrinking into herself.

"He threatened you?" Kasumi asked worriedly, fretting with her hands.

"His flunkies did." Ranma amended. "Said that he just wanted to talk when they—invited me to his place."

"What did he talk about?" Favian leaned back in the chair and relaxed slightly.

"He—." Ranma paused, blue eyes looking down nervously. "He said some stupid stuff about you and—." The small girl squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists.

"Stupid stuff?" The older man grew more intense. "What lies has he spread about me now?"

"He didn't know where you were from." Ranma's shoulders shook. "I couldn't stop him. I didn't know what to do and he cast a spell on me." Kasumi put an arm around Ranma's shoulders to try and be reassuring. Her fiancé stiffened at the contact but made no move closer or away. "I couldn't move—."

"Did he?" Kasumi's eyes widened in concern. Had Ranma been raped? It would certainly explain the red head's emotional turmoil.

"He knew about my back—the mark."

"What about your back." Favian leaned forward in his seat.

"I have a slave mark." Ranma admitted and stared down at her lap.

"Why did you hide this from me?" The man covered his face with his right hand with a sigh.

"I didn't hide it, I just don't go around telling everyone that I got marked by a Drow!" Ranma snapped angrily.

"Master Favian, Ranma isn't a slave." She didn't know what procedure there would be for a slave here but Favian seemed concerned about it so she was as well.

"I know that—if you were a Drow slave I would have sensed an enchantment on the mark when you first arrived." He sighed again. "And then what?"

Ranma's eyes fell again. "I couldn't move." She repeated her earlier line, visibly struggling with herself to continue. "He tore my tunic off just before Varis and some guys came in the room." Kasumi gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. Even though Ranma had grown up a boy she couldn't imagine the horror of being stripped and exposed to a group of men.

The redhead hugged herself before continuing. "None of them would believe me. But they believed that bastard when he said I was trying to seduce him. That I was your whore. I didn't—I'd never do that."

Favian sat staring at Ranma with an unreadable expression on his face. Slowly the man stood up and reached out a hand to pat Ranma on the shoulder before he chose not to. "Both of you get some sleep. This no longer concerns you." Kasumi caught the man mouth something before he turned away from them.

"How does it not concern me?" Ranma asked before pausing to yawn and rub her eyes. "He—." The redhead relaxed back against the couch snoring softly.

"Did you do that?" Kasumi questioned looking between the two. "Why did you do that?" She asked agitatedly.

"Like I said, this no longer concerns you. Take Ranma to study enchantment creation at the library tomorrow. I'll be busy." He answered, no longer paying attention to either of them as he hurried out of the room.

* * *

Author Notes

1 - Ranma only notices behavioral differences when it clashes with something that he's used to. He's dealt with life or death fights his entire life, to be frozen into inaction sticks out in his mind. While being more forward with Kasumi, that's new, doesn't really hit any mental notices.

2 - Every spell cast by a tieflings within the barrier, demons would actually be killed upon entering, is far weaker than if they were outside. Infernal or divine magic is far more potent and that component of it is cut out, leaving only a very diluted effect.

3 - Check out my Deviantart page for a picture of Ranma wearing Kiima's armor.

4 – He literally is a gnome. So yes, have the horror of imagining an entire race of beings who look like Happosai and Cologne. Although they are far less wrinkly when younger.


	11. The Calm Before

"Speech"  
'Thought'  
#Panda sign#  
**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

* * *

Morning

Favian hated everything about this moment. From the look of triumph he had seen on Dorik's face, to the sense of support Favian felt heading in the man's direction. Once again he had to defend his own judgment and the innocence of his students. Where the council had originally argued purely against his student's ancestry, this time Dorik thought he had a winning position. The man's smugness was overwhelming. The chambers were immaculate, servants moved quickly to answer any summons, and it all seemed to be the picture of normality.

Favian wanted to destroy this perfect façade built around him.

"Seeing as you didn't bring your student with you, do you have anything to say on her behalf?" A council member named Broder asked. Favian knew the young man to normally be level headed but was supporting Dorik for some reason.

"I did not bring her because after being attacked, having her dignity stolen, and being exposed to several men who treated her like an animal—I felt it was best not to put her through any more torment." He answered, pointedly looking directly at Varis before turning his gaze to Dorik.

"So you call me a liar?" Dorik asked full of indignation.

"There's a very easy way to prove your accusation." He maintained his angry glare but allowed a toothy grin to spread across his face.

"Is that why you didn't bring her with you? You didn't want us to use a truth spell upon her? To find out her, or should I say your, true motives for throwing herself at me?" Dorik reacted with all the outrage he could muster.

"There is not one witness to that other than yourself!"

"Just as you planned it, sending that poor girl to my home. But too bad for you I was not alone." Standing up, Dorik glanced between several other council members. "How long ago did you purchase her? And why didn't you tell us that she's a slave in the first place?"

"She is not my slave." Favian remained sitting, struggling to keep himself calm. "I did not send her to your home. You had several of your servants threaten her."

"Gentlemen, please!" Varis slammed his gavel down twice. "It's quite disturbing that you neglected to tell us that the girl was a slave. On top of her actions towards Master Dorik last night." (1)

"Actions that he refuses to confirm." Favian pointed out, gesturing towards Dorik.

"We have no reason to distrust our fellow council member's words. Only you have been keeping secrets from us." Another man named Finelis spoke up. "And I move that you be removed from your seat."

Favian's gaze locked on the man instantly. "Removed?"

"Is there a second?" Varis asked.

"I second." Another younger man with pure white hair answered Finelis' call to have him removed.

"Then we will put it to a vote. All in favor." Varis looked around at the assembled group and all but Favian raised their hands. "Opposed?" Favian didn't bother to vote.

"And this changes what?" He asked snidely. "My student is innocent of all accusations and can prove it. These political games make no difference."

"Are you so dedicated to spiting me that you would parade her out before us?" Dorik asked, raising an eyebrow. "I am a bigger man than to use some poor slave girl to get what I want. I would be remiss not to take into consideration the great service she performed protecting our last supply ship." The man turned towards Varis and bowed his head slightly. "Favian has wasted enough of the council's time. There's no further point to dragging this out just to punish someone who he forced into action."

"Agreed." Varis nodded to Dorik. "Our original decision that the girl not be taught will stand. This applies to both of them." Favian simmered, having little recourse politically to fix the situation. "You are still a teacher here but they will not receive any more instruction and will have to find a new place to live by the end of the week."

"And if I refuse to accept this travesty?" He asked, knowing that if he truly wanted to defy the council, none of them would be able to stop him.

"Then an appropriate action will be taken." Varis answered, slamming his gavel down once. "Meeting adjourned."

* * *

Dorik couldn't believe how well that meeting had gone. His plan had been merely to destroy the red headed harlot's reputation and create a thorn in Favian's side. But this was so far above any of his expectations. Not only was Favian off the council but both of the tieflings were now out of the academy. He was sure that Ladon would hear about this through another contact and be ecstatic over the result.

Avoiding small talk with a couple of inconsequential council members, he couldn't resist gloating but had to wait until he was alone. Following Favian, he made sure that he was noticed, and entered into a secluded alcove. He didn't have to wait long for the former council member to show up. He was going to start mocking the man but was unprepared to stop Favian from grabbing him by the collar to push him up against the wall with great force. Dorik's eyes widened in alarm at the unexpected strength of the elderly man.

"You piece of filth." Favian growled at him, bringing up his forearm across Dorik's neck. "I swore an oath a long time ago that I would never take another life but if you even so much as utter a word to either of them, I will break that promise and end your miserable existence."

"You're all bark and no bite old man." Dorik sneered.

"Do not tempt me." He growled out and his orange eyes glowed slightly as he roughly shoved him against the wall one more time before pulling away.

"In time." He chuckled at the man's retreating form. When Favian was no longer in sight he brought up a hand to rub at his sore throat.

* * *

Three days later

"I can't believe he did that." Ranma directed a punch by Kiima off to one side before grabbing hold of the white haired girl's wrist. With a smooth motion she stepped forward and swept her sparring partners arm downwards and behind her back. Kiima was thrown forward onto her back with a heavy thud.

"You've been complaining about him for days. Surely you have more important concerns." Kiima grumbled as she rose to a sitting position and briefly inspected her wings. The white haired girl was always overly cautious about her wings and took great pride in them. Ranma felt a brief pang of jealousy at the bright white plumage that looked so much better than her own ugly dark bat wings.

"He put me to sleep." She simmered and walked over to the edge of the roof to sit down in a huff. Brushing some of her long unbound hair back over her shoulder, she was quite happy with how it was staying mostly out of the way. It was just an experiment, going forward she would keep it tied back in case of fights.

"He's apologized—at least twice in my presence." Kiima hopped up to her feet with a sigh.

"It's the principle of the matter." Ranma snorted, her anger at Favian's action having fizzled out long ago. He had apologized and helped them find a place to stay. The apartment was the top story of a three story home. It consisted of a one room apartment with a small kitchen and large open living space. The only running water was for the small toilet facility in the back corner. As far as Ranma knew, Favian was barred from teaching them but he had slipped her a bag of holding filled with books and scrolls. These items were now spread out over a shelf and part of the floor. They covered a wide array of subjects and she doubted that she would exhaust the knowledge within for several years.

"Shall we call it a day?" Kiima sat down next to her, wings shifting before settling against her back. It was warmer out today but they were both wearing multiple layers to fight against the cold.

"I guess." She would have liked to continue but there were some scrolls that she really wanted to read through. Glancing upwards at the light gray clouds that hid the sun, she sighed in disgust, having just agreed to stop training before noon. Ranma could remember training with her father from sunup to sunset. But now there were so many other things filling up her time that she couldn't do that anymore.

Kiima leaned towards her and sniffed twice before recoiling. "You don't have a bath here do you?"

"No room." Ranma answered as a cheap explanation, grimacing from Kiima's notice of her lack of hygiene.

Ever since they were kicked out of the home up in the park she hadn't been able to take a bath. There were a handful of places around the city she could go but the whispered rumors about her always made her so angry that she worried about hurting someone if she stayed. Dorik had been very thorough in turning her reputation from a semi-hero for defending the airship to an outright demonic whore. Kasumi had used the one in Favian's home but Ranma had been giving the man a wide berth since he had put her to sleep.

"You're welcome to come and use ours." Kiima offered with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Unless you enjoy your newfound ability to wilt flowers as you pass."

"Well if you're offering—I guess I could use a bath." She agreed, her tail twitching once as she picked up on something. "Wait— ours?"

* * *

Nerima

"Nodoka." Genma whispered and knocked on the Succubae's door. "Nodoka." He whispered and knocked again with a bit more force. "Nodoka." His hand stopped in mid knock because he no longer had a door to hit. (2)

"Yes?" The redhead in human form asked tiredly at his knocking tactic. She was wearing a transparent black robe over an otherwise very enticing piece of female lingerie that Genma would otherwise spend hours staring at. Behind the woman he could see a form curled up underneath the blankets on Nodoka's large bed.

"Shh!" He pushed his way in and closed the door as silently as he could behind him. "Something horrible has happened." He announced in a tiny voice.

"Ranma's found a way to stay male?" Nodoka asked in horror.

"What? No— Nothing about the boy." Genma shook his head. "He's back."

"Who's back?" Michiko asked curiously, rolling over to face him and to sit up still wrapped up in the comforter. "Is it Ranma?"

Rushing over to the window, he looked around nervously before shutting the drapes. Turning slowly around to face his daughter and mother of his children, he whispered two words. "The Master."

Nodoka blinked her eyes at him and Michiko stared at him without comprehension. "Is that all?" The Succubus asked, completely unconcerned that the gnome was no longer buried in a cave.

"You're not worried?" He was in shock that the demoness didn't immediately pack her belongings to return to her home plane.

"I'm no longer in danger of him binding me so—no." She answered, shifting her robe around briefly to stand with her arms crossed.

"But what about our son and daughter? He'll want some way to get back at me and probably you once he realizes that you're still around. The Master will have no qualms about using them to do that." Genma did not know how he could stress the gravity of this situation any further. Nodoka had to know the danger that Happosai posed, why wasn't she showing any concern?

"Our girls will be fine. Besides—." A cruel smile spread of the demon's face. "I wonder how long he would last against Ranma?"

"Mom, is this Master the one who bound you to this plane?" Michiko asked, her head still the only thing sticking out of the blanket, and a hint of worry entering her voice.

"Unfortunately, but don't worry, he probably won't even know that I'm here, and I can handle anything he may try this time. " Nodoka's reassurance put a happy smile back on the young tiefling.

"He's just as strong as ever, don't underestimate him or how petty he can be." He worried about Nodoka, if she was exposed to the public who knew what would happen? No mortal city was ever going to respond positively to a Demon living secretly in their midst. Ranma and Michiko would also be at risk with Genma himself being pulled along in the wake of such a revelation. Even the Tendo's would come under scrutiny for associating with him and Kasumi's visible reminder of their own ancestry.

"Anything else?" Nodoka asked before sitting down next to Michiko on the bed to pull at the blanket. "Come on wiggle butt, we have a full day planned out and we can snuggle in bed later." (3)

"Mom!" Michiko protested the name and pulled her blanket tighter around her body. "Don't call me that!"

"Or what?" The red head poked at the wrapped up form of her daughter eliciting several giggles. "You'll wag your tail at me?"

"That was only when I was younger!"

Watching his newly discovered daughter share a joke he was not privy to, Genma merely slumped his shoulders in defeat. "No- I guess that's it." He finally answered Nodoka's question. Nodoka would have to feel the Master's wrath before she would ever do anything. Her race was too simplistic to have any long term concerns. But even if Nodoka was going to put herself and their youngest at risk, he would be on watch to help her when Happosai eventually found out about this place.

* * *

Ranma let Kiima lead her to the Phoenix's small area of the city. It was perhaps the most unnatural place for the race to take up residence, consisting primarily of older one story homes. But having lost everything, the small number that remained couldn't be picky about their free living arrangements. The area around it looked to be lower income and sparsely populated. Lutansk had been hemorrhaging it's population the moment Ladon took up residence outside. Most of the buildings were dark with the white paint that covered the city chipped and cracked from neglect. Only a small amount of people were walking the streets and they never saw either of them flying because they didn't look up.

Landing after Kiima with a clack from her hooves on the stone road next to a large square building, Ranma stood up straight and waited to see where Kiima was going to take her now. A bath was secondary to finding out more about Kiima's personal life and satisfying her curious nature.

"I just need to check on someone." Kiima pointed towards the large building. "You can go get started in the bath, if you want?"

"Trying to get rid of me?" Ranma asked in mock indignation. "Does my scent offend you that much?"

"Up to you." Kiima shrugged off Ranma's antics and headed off for a two story building across the street.

She may enjoy the time she spent with Kiima but much of what the other girl enjoyed doing remained a mystery. Kiima was always serious, she had been the captain of the royal guard, and appeared to take that duty to heart. Ranma couldn't begin to understand the loss the Phoenix had endured at the hands of Ladon or relate to Kiima's inability to protect her people.

Ranma heard the rapid voices of excited children before the door was opened to the building and inside she was greeted to a long hall fill with close to twenty young boys and girls ranging in age from three to seven. They were all from the Phoenix and upon seeing Kiima they all quit their games or arguments to rush over to clamor for the girl's attention. Up until they saw that a tiefling was standing next to the white haired girl.

"Boys— Girls." Kiima addressed the group that was rapidly growing nervous over Ranma's presence. "This is my friend, Ranma Saotome. Say hello." Around the group there were hesitant greetings directed towards her.

"Hello." Ranma responded and tried to hide her own nervousness. She had no clue what to do in this kind of situation. The only kid she had ever spent any length of time around was her own sister, Michiko, and that had only been for a couple of days.

Wading through the large group of children was an older Phoenix woman with dark red feathers who seemed very relieved that Kiima had shown up. "Thank you for coming Lady Kiima." The woman bowed briefly and gave Ranma a suspicious look out of the corner of her eye before continuing. "And greetings— Miss Ranma."

"Greetings." She answered, the strange situation still throwing her for a loop.

"Samosa, I was wondering if any of the girls were in need of a bath?" Kiiima asked the woman.

"All of them." The woman answered tiredly. "But if you can take the older girls I'll be able to handle the younger ones later after Koruma and Masara come to watch them for the night."

Ranma kept her face neutral, trying to figure out why Kiima was inviting a bunch of children along. She had been looking forward to a nice relaxing soak. As the children were divided up and some boys along with the younger girls complained that Kiima was leaving them, Ranma kept to the side, trying not to be hit by a stray wing.

"Um— Kiima." Ranma whispered to the taller girl. "What's going on here?"

"We all have to take turns with the children." Kiima leaned in close to whisper directly in her ear. "And this'll let me get out of doing more later."

'Kill two birds with one stone?' Ranma thought, deciding not to vocalize the phrase, realizing that it might be a horrible one to the bird people. Blinking at the light tugging on the bottom of her tunic, she looked down to a young girl who was staring up at her with wide green eyes and clutching a stuffed seagull to her chest. "Uh— yes?"

"Are you a nice Demon?" The small girl asked innocently.

"I'm not a Demon." Ranma answered, crouching down. "But yes I am— nice." She added.

"You promise?"

"Uh- huh." Ranma nodded and tried to smile reassuringly.

"Muin don't pester." Samosa quickly herded the small girl away and gave Ranma an apologetic glance.

"Ranma, would you mind keeping an eye out so none of the girls wander off?" Kiima asked as the children finished gathering a change of clothes.

"Sure." She still didn't really know how to feel about this situation but helping to stop little kids from getting lost seemed normal enough. Even if they were going just across the street.

Standing back from the action, Ranma's tried not to laugh when Kiima ended up leading seven of the older girls out of the door like a mother duck with her ducklings. She didn't have to keep any of the kids in line as they followed the white haired girl like she was a celebrity, badgering her with questions about her day so far.

Their bath turned out to be in a dilapidated old public bath house. The heat for the water was provided by a large wood stove with an enchanted pipe constantly pouring water through a system of tubes above. Ranma didn't know why they were using a fire to provide the heat when enchantments would be far more efficient, but assumed there was some purpose for it being cobbled together. The building had only one bath and it looked large enough for a dozen adults to sit comfortably. An area was set aside for cleaning with water being fed by a rusty hand pump in the corner. Ranma had been in dozens of places like this over the years but that was because her father was a cheapskate. The heat generated by the bath and fireplace was barely enough to keep the temperature above the exterior.

Ranma was so caught up in inspecting the building that she failed to notice that the Phoenix were disrobing in order to clean themselves until she caught sight of Kiima removing her blouse. Her blue eyes couldn't help but wander over the white haired girls tall form. The wickedly clawed hands and feet didn't detract from her beauty, or the several thin scars that dotted Kiima's lithe form.

The only thing that stopped her from appraising the Phoenix girl's body for the rest of the day was that Kiima looked over and noticed her attention. Ranma hastily looked away with her cheeks blushing pink, and tried to look busy unbuttoning her tunic. Kiima's attention was thankfully diverted by two girls fighting over something, giving Ranma time to release the breath she didn't know she was holding.

Making a point to not look in Kiima's direction as she settled the dispute between the two kids while wearing not a stitch of clothing, Ranma found that there was one little girl who was sitting off to the side and not preparing to get into the bath. "Hey— um— what's your name?

"It's Riisu, Miss Ranma." The little Phoenix girl answered in a small voice, only looking up long enough to check her identity before staring back down at the floor.

"is anything wrong?" Ranma asked, shrugging off the feeling that she was getting far too used to female honorifics.

"I'm just waiting." The girl answered, playing with the reddish brown feathers on her left wing nervously.

"For?" Ranma knelt down on the wooden floor, happy that she was now fully distracted from Kiima's supple body.

"You're not going to tell?" The girl glanced quickly at the other children.

"On my honor."

"Promise?"

"I promise on my honor." She added.

"Pinky promise? Pluck your wings bare, pull out all your hair?" A tiny clawed hand was extended with the pinky finger extended.

'You're really pushing it kid.' Ranma decided to humor the kid and shook pinkies with her. "Pinky promise."

"They stare." The girl chewed on her lower lip. "Because I got hurt."

"You look fine to me." Ranma wondered if patting the girl on the back as though she should walk off the problem was the proper action. Her words clearly didn't sit well as the young girl's eyes started to water up. "Don't cry." She panicked. "How about— uh— well—." She stuttered, clearly comforting small children was not her element.

"I'll never be pretty like you." The little girl started to cry in earnest, burying her face in her hands.

Ranma stared at the winged girl frozen with indecision and worried that she would somehow get in trouble for making a kid cry. The only role models on how to deal with emotional distress were Nodoka and Kasumi. Some of what those two did had made her feel better so she decided to give one method a try. Scooting over and hugging the girl's shoulders, she gently patted her back. "Hey— don't talk like that. I'm sure you're— going to be really pretty when you grow up."

The crying quickly turned into sniffles as she moved closer and turned enough to look up at her. "You mean it?"

"Oh yea— I'm going to be jealous." Ranma nodded to the girl. "Kiima's going to be asking you how you did it."

"Did what?" The little girl asked cluelessly.

Ranma had to stop and think about her statement for a moment as well. "How you got so pretty."

"Thank you Miss Ranma." The Phoenix girl snuggled in close to Ranma. "Can you help me wash my hair? I want hair like yours, it's beautiful."

"Alright I guess." Ranma nodded her agreement and the little girl gave her one last squeeze before skipping off to start taking her clothing off near the wash area. 'Gee Saotome, keep this up and someday you might make a good nursemaid.'

Starting from her neck and going down, Ranma began to undo the clasps holding her tunic closed. Mere minutes from now she'd be clean and enjoying a hot bath, two things that had been denied her by Dorik. Shrugging her tunic off of her shoulders, she was starting to pull her wings through the material when she caught sight of Kiima's bare chest when the Phoenix upended a bucket of water to rinse the shampoo from a small girl's hair. Ranma's top ripped like parchment, her momentary distraction had caused her to accidentally pull too hard on her tunic, splitting it vertically where the wing slits had been cut out.

"Awwww!" Ranma bemoaned her fate, causing several of the girls to giggle at her accident. Giving them a sideways glance, she removed her tunic, and inspected the damage. Both slits had ripped, running up the cloth in zig zags before coming together just underneath the neck. Thankfully she had a lot of time on her hands now because it wasn't going to be an easy fix. 'That leaves me just three tunics left if I can mend this one.'

The rest of her clothing was removed without incident and once nude, she knelt down next to a giggling Riisu, to perform her promised action. "What?" Ranma asked, the small girl trying to stifle her giggles with a hand over her mouth.

"Your tail wiggled funny when you tore your shirt." The small girl answered.

"Real funny." Ranma rolled her eyes and casually summoned some hot water in a nearby wash bucket to dump over the child's head. She paused for only a moment, realizing that the action had drawn quite a bit of interest from the children who had been paying attention to her. Shrugging it off, she repeated the conjuration while adding a cleaning enchantment, and this time slowly poured the water over Riisu's head to get her thoroughly soaked. "There ya go." She announced, running her hands through the girl's hair to get the enchanted water all over.

"No shampoo?"

"You'll have to go get it." Ranma answered impatiently.

"Okay." The girl ran over to where the communal bottle was being used by another child two years older to get it. With her wings spread slightly to help with balance, Riisu was showing off a large scar that ran diagonally down her back from right shoulder down to her left hip. Ranma brought her right wing forward and thought back to the size of the hole made by Raxus' sword. She knew of no one else on the island who used a sword with such a large edge. Ranma had known that Raxus was a monster but she had to bury her anger at evidence of his atrocities.

"Here it is." Riisu skipped back and handed the nearly empty bottle to Ranma before dropping down on a stool to wait.

Rubbing the flowery fragranced shampoo into Riisu's reddish brown hair, Ranma had a moment of quiet to consider how the tiny child could have survived an attack by Raxus, before three other children took placed around her.

"Can you help us too?" The tallest one with white hair like Kiima's asked hesitantly.

Ranma's shoulders slumped in defeat and she resigned herself to her fate. Ten minutes later and with her knees sore from kneeling on the wooden floor she finally finished with the last one who ran off to join the others in the large bath. Kiima had sat down next to her and gave her an appreciative smile before motioning towards the wash bucket. "What? You can't wash yourself either?"

"Please?" Kiima asked tiredly.

"When you offered a bath, you forgot to mention it was to help you take care of a bunch of kids." She glanced at Kiima out of the corner of her eye and summoned more water to the bucket.

"You wanted to wait." The Phoenix girl pointed out and found the shampoo bottle empty.

"And a cleaning enchantment." Ranma added, activating the enchantment for both of the buckets.

"Thank you." Kiima nodded her head in appreciation. "For everything."

"Are their parents?" She kept her voice low, letting the animated conversation from the children hide her question.

"You saw Riisu's scar." Kiima answered sadly. "They're the only ones that we could save."

"How did it happen? The attack?"

"Our Lord Saffron answered a challenge by Raxus. Everyone but the young were gathered to witness that monster's demise. During the fight the dead came up through tunnels underneath our home. They were deep in the mountain, they should have been safe. We only knew something was wrong when we heard the screams." Kiima squeezed her eyes shut and stopped in her retelling. (4)

"I think I've heard enough." Ranma gulped and used dumping her bucket of water over her head as a way to stop herself from thinking about children being slaughtered.

"Everyone has to pitch in and help take care of them now." Kiima had finished with cleaning herself and waited to see if she was done before heading to the bath.

Ranma decided that she liked following the Phoenix woman around as she almost burned her eyes into Kiima's bottom. Forcing her eyes up to a neutral spot like Kiima's strong shoulders, Ranma reminded herself that she was engaged. 'Well— not anymore.' She realized with a hollow ache in her heart. Sliding into the water next to Kiima, she winced at the unexpected coolness. While it was warmer than the air around it, the water was barely lukewarm. It was also felt dirty from too many people entering without being clean.

"It's a bath." Kiima shrugged, noticing that she was finding fault with the experience.

"Better than a stream." Ranma laughed to herself, preparing a slightly more complicated enchantment. "But I can fix it." Cupping her hands together and raising a small amount of water from the pool, the liquid glowed a pale blue before she let it fall back into the water where the color spread out through the entire bath. Instantly the water cleared and grew warmer until it was creating tiny wisps of steam that floated up into the air. Ranma nodded in satisfaction and allowed herself to sink down into the water until her breasts were completely submerged.

"What did you do?" Kiima asked in amazement. The children missed the spellcasting but they did take note of the added warmth, and they started to pay more attention to the grown ups conversation.

"Just something to keep the water hot and clean." She didn't know if she should point out that it was Kasumi who had taught her that specific spell. "Should last a month or two."

"I don't know how we can thank you for this." Kiima ran a hand along the tiled edge, watching as grime dissolved away into the water, leaving a clean surface behind.

Ranma couldn't stop herself from imagining one way Kiima could repay her but she forcibly killed that line of thought. She wanted to mention that if it wasn't for Kiima and several other Phoenix, death would have been a blessing, but didn't want to appear weak. "We're friends, you don't need to thank me." She finally settled on.

"Friends." Kiima smiled, revealing a subtle vulnerability Ranma hadn't seen before. She wanted to linger on the moment except it was extinguished by large splashes as the children all rushed over to her, spilling water up over her face.

"Was that magic?" "Can you do more?" "Do you know any cool spells?" "Can you teach me?"

"Girls!" Kiima shouted, standing up and planting her hands on her hips. "Where are your manners? Shouldn't you all say thank you for the warm bath?"

"Thank you." They said in a poorly done chorus with several adding Miss Ranma on to the end.

"If you have questions you can ask them later like civilized Phoenix." Kiima added, earning her many disappointed looks. "I'm sure Ranma is tired from performing so many spells so let her have some rest."

"I'm not tired." Ranma whispered to Kiima, the girls were pouting but were starting to play in the water again.

"You will be." Kiima smirked. "We Phoenix have a lot of energy, doubly so when we're children, and none of them are able to burn it off. Why do you think Samosa looked so tired?"

"I thought she just didn't like me." Ranma shrugged and turned towards Riisu who sat down next to her.

"Miss Ranma, do you know any good stories?" The girl asked.

"Riisu, what did I just say?" Kiima crossed her arms and tapped a talon against her upper arm impatiently.

"Please." Another girl close by swam over. "Do you know any? We've heard all of Lady Kiima's."

"No you haven't!" Kiima announced indignantly.

"She's boring! It's just Lord Saffron this, Lord Saffron that." A third spoke before wilting under Kiima's glare.

"I guess I know one or two." Ranma said casually and trying to sound slightly unsure of herself. Smirking, she wondered if she was also a better entertainer than the white haired woman.

* * *

Kasumi paused in rolling up a particularly old scroll, afraid that the material would break apart. She had been slowly going through some of the library of information that Favian had dumped into their laps. All of the parchment was enchanted to be more durable than when it was first made but that didn't stop it from aging.

"Pepa, would you put this one on the shelf with the rest of the Dragon scrolls?" She asked the fairy who looked lost in thought as she read from a book Kasumi had yet to review. Pepa nodded and with only minor difficulty raised the scroll up to sit on the indicated shelf. There was a limited amount of space in the apartment but there was enough for several shelves that were still inadequate to hold all that they had.

She was a little surprised by the sheer volume of material that Favian had on Dragons. History of each of the different colors, stories of their interactions with mortal races, strength and weaknesses, even interviews with divine ones. Enough books and scrolls that she imagined it must have taken a lifetime to amass.

The one she had just been studying was a scroll on the fall of the black Dragons. Corrupted by the Demon of trickery and lies, Thet, they became masters of deception. Rarely if ever taking their true form, even tieflings were said to live out their lives disguised as mortals from birth. The prevailing thought on why they were so secretive was that they were completely unable to stand any truth. The rapid destruction of several civilizations were considered the direct result of their manipulations.

"What's next?" Pepa asked helpfully, returning to float in front of Kasumi.

"Time for a break." She answered and painfully rose from her kneeling position for the past three hours. Kasumi wondered if she should set aside time to sew together a kneeling pad since they had no furniture in the apartment. "Do you want some tea?" Pepa nodded enthusiastically and zipped around.

Humming to herself as she prepared a midday snack, Kasumi glanced upwards towards the roof where the sounds of physical training had long since stopped. Since Ranma had not come back she assumed that her fiance and that horrible Kiima woman had left to train somewhere else. Not that she would ever speak aloud her opinion of the Phoenix girl but the two times they had spoken, it had been tense, and with Kiima sounding as though she wanted to gut her where she stood. Kasumi could accept some friction due to the genocide of the Phoenix, but Kiima assigned the same blame to her simply due to her lineage.

Stopping in her preparation, she stared at the kettle as it warmed the water inside. Favian now had to be distant and Ranma was off spending a large portion of time with Kiima. This left her the alone most of the time. There were few people in the city who gave her any consideration and she felt truly alone for the first time in her life. Was it because of her mistaken response to Ranma's proposal? Her own personality? Or was it a fate she was destined to have simply by being the descendant of a Dragon?

"Pepa." She started, watching the fairy scoop out tea from her cup with a makeshift bowl sized for her. "Can you tell me what Ranma does with Kiima?"

"They fight a lot." The blue haired fairy nodded her head, nearly spilling her tea in the process. "But never really hurt each other."

"Oh, so they spar." Kasumi realized what the spell creature was trying to say. Ranma had been denied a regular training partner near her level, so Kiima must be filling the Genma sized hole in Ranma's life. "Anything else?"

"I don't know—." Pepa blinked her eyes and her wings fluttered briefly. "Ooh! They talk sometimes about how they can get better at fighting— I mean sparring."

Relieved that Ranma and Kiima were just sparring partners, Kasumi sipped at her tea, but found no joy in the bland drink. It was getting harder to get any decent tea leaves and even harder to find any reasonably priced. Hopefully she would be able to return home to Nerima and her family soon. Life was so much simpler when her world revolved around her home.

"Pepa." She drew the fairies attention as Pepa's attention was starting to wander. "Would you go get Ranma for me, please?"

"Okay." The blue haired fairy nodded her head briskly.

"And if Ranma asks why— I just wanted to know if— she wanted to go shopping with me." Kasumi added meekly, not wanting to appear desperate to spend more time with her first real friend.

"Right." Pepa nodded again and Kasumi opened up the window so the fairy could get out.

* * *

Ranma paused in her story, letting the assembled Phoenix girls wait with bated breath for her next word. All the girls were clumped together next to Kiima on the seat surrounding the bath with she had moved to stand near the center. Kiima had been uninterested at the start but was now listening intently. She had been regaling them with the tale of how she saved a client from an evil magic user. Of course she didn't advertise that she was the strapping young man, valiantly battling poorly trained minions to reach the top of his mountain top lair.

"Running through the upper most door, he stopped—." She breathed, looking between several of the children. "He had finally found the evil wizard Drinnel and his captive— the fair maiden Sipha."

"So did he save her?" One of the children asked impatiently only to be shushed by the rest. Ranma let a small smile creep onto her face, happy that she was being successful at storytelling before she tried to go back into character.

"Sipha's wrists were bound together and she was dangling perilously over a pit in the center of the room, while Drinnel waited in the far corner of the room, ready to release the rope that would send the fair maiden to her doom on spikes in the pit below!" Pausing again, she let the girls react, some gasping in horror, others making comments about poor landlings.

"Drinnel laughed, the rope slipping from his hand for only a moment, Sipha screamed in horror before she was stopped. Our hero paused, seeing that the evil wizard was preparing a portal to escape justice, realizing that there was no way he could save the lady Sipha and capture the evil wizard."

"Stay right where you are! Drinnel yelled across the room as his portal was finished being summoned. You've defeated all of my loyal subjects! He proclaimed. But now you must choose! Save the girl! Or capture me!" Ranma announced dramatically and held her hand over her mouth to laugh evilly.

"What did he do?" Asked Riisu, looking up at her with wide terrified eyes along with several other of the children.

"Well—." Ranma paused. "He had a difficult choice to make, if he allowed Drinnel to go free then more people would be in danger, but the other choice was to let Sipha be killed. He had to save Sipha— and he had a plan. Our hero was the best, he always came through, he always did the impossible!"

"All he had to do was run six meters and he would be able to get Sipha to safety." Ranma noticed a new member of her audience as Pepa flew in the doorway and took a seat on the very edge of the bath.

"The moment he saw that Drinnel's attention was diverted to the final spell for his portal— he ran. Clearing the distance with one mighty leap, he put one arm around lady Sipha's waist, and used his other to grab hold of the rope. Tugging as hard as he could, Drinnel's arm was caught on the other side and he was thrown off balance, his final spell failing to open the portal!" Several of the girl's gave muted squeals of excitement and Kiima gave her a look of approval for the story.

"Dazed but not finished, Drinnel fumbled with the rope wrapped around his wrist long enough to have our hero stomp his boot down on his hand. Drinnel looked up at him in defiance, trying to cast a spell, until he received a thorough thrashing at the hands of our hero. Having defeated the evil wizard and saved the lady Sipha, our hero tied Drinnel up in his own trap, leaving him to be picked up by the proper authorities. So enthused by her daring rescue, the lady Sipha attempted to give our hero a kiss in thanks but he declined. He didn't need such things, he had other maidens to save and evil to defeat— the end." She announced and hung her head.

Ranma looked up quickly and took a step back at the crash of water as all the girls rushed up to clamor around her asking for another story. "No more stories. Sorry." She apologized and sweated nervously. "I need to handle something." Ranma found Pepa fluttering over to her, weaving around all the girls to float within arms reach. "Why are you here?"

"I want to hear your story from the beginning." Pepa gushed and froze at the collective gasp of the children who were now solely focused on her. "Uh— hi." She greeted. "I'm Pepa, what's all your names?"

Ranma winced at the high pitched squeals of delight from the girls as they were all diverted from her to try and capture the cute fairy. "Hey!" She yelled, noticing that they were not at all concerned that Pepa did not want to be forcibly grabbed from the air. "Hey!" She yelled more forcefully and caused the water to rise up quickly and splash them. "She's not a toy so be gentle." There was a brief moment where the girls looked ashamed before they went back to excitedly trying to talk to Pepa. Normally Ranma would have enjoyed the spell creatures misfortune but Pepa had been very tolerable as of late so she would have felt bad to have her be crushed by an overenthusiastic child.

Sighing and deciding that she had been as nice to the fairy as she could be in one day, she waded to the edge of the bath to get out. Kiima watched her charges out of the corner of the eye but followed her out of the bath. Ranma grimaced slightly at the realization that while clean, there were only a handful of towels. 'This time, I'm not waiting.' She decided.

"Do you have much practice as a bard?" Kiima asked, half heartedly trying to get the kids to leave the bath.

"Nope." She answered with a shrug of her shoulders before bending down to dry off her legs. "But if you hear enough of them, you kind of pick up a few things. Not that I'm all that good." She admitted.

"Nonsense, you were great." The white haired woman finally got the attention of all the girls after Pepa decided to fly over to the perceived safety behind Ranma.

"Help." The fairy whispered in a tiny voice. "They keep— grabbing me."

"Well if you annoy me, I'll feed you to them." Ranma whispered back. "And there's more of them."

"Enough girls, get dried off, and get your clean clothes on so we can go home." Kiima stomped her clawed feet on the wood.

Ranma chuckled to herself, happy that she would never have to deal with this many children, and finished drying herself. Her hair was still damp but no towel was ever going to fix that, so she created a warm updraft of air that blew her hair around, and rapidly dried it. Unfortunately it made her hair a gigantic mess so she tried to run her hands through it to remove all the tangles. Her show of magic was loud enough to get attention so she ended up drying everyone's hair. The girls giggling as the air also blew through their feathers.

"So what'd you want?" She asked Pepa finally.

"I don't remember." The fairy admitted, still eying the young girls warily.

"Why am I not surprised?" Ranma rolled her eyes as she put back on her clothing from earlier. She would have to head back to the apartment to get a new tunic because the rip was already bugging her.

"You really should purchase more clothing." Kiima remarked, keeping an eye on the girls as they dressed. "All your tunics are falling apart and your pants are following."

"My clothes are fine." She dismissed Kiima's suggestion as she knelt down to pull tight the ties keeping her pants secured at the ankles. Pausing, she grimaced at a patch of black fabric worn thin enough to see the skin beneath. "Besides, I have some scrolls to look over."

"If it's a matter of money I apologize, as you can tell, we Phoenix have to make due with what we have as well."

"I have money." She rose up to her full height but didn't look right at Kiima. "I just—." Ranma didn't want Kiima to know about her past, afraid of dealing with the consequences of having once again lied to a friend. "I just—- I'm— I'm not good at picking things out." She half lied, she was bad at picking out things for this body. "Besides, I like the clothing I have."

"They do fit your personality, but I am curious why you wear such baggy clothing? You're very beautiful, why not wear something that flatters your figure instead of hides it?"

'Damn it Kiima, stop asking questions.' How could she explain that the reason she didn't want to replace her clothing was because it was something that still tied her to her real body? She already had the outfit Michiko convinced her to buy, what more did she need? "Because I don't like guys staring at me all the time." She decided on an explanation that was actually true.

"So you wear male clothing multiple times your size?" Kiima asked skeptically.

Ranma glanced side to side nervously and crossed her arms. "Yes."

The white haired woman shook her head in disbelief. "So what's stopping you from getting more?"

"Uh—." She blinked her eyes several times. "I guess I could— ya know— get more." Scratching at the back of her head, she laughed nervously. "Silly me."

"Uh huh." Kiima rolled her eyes at Ranma's response. "Come on girls, let's get you back to Samosa."

Unlike when she had followed Kiima across the street earlier, Ranma found herself the center of most of that attention on the way back. Not even Kiima's warning that they should stop badgering her with questions stopped the girls from trying to talk to her. Most of the questions were about them learning magic or something she could do for them. Ranma just smiled nervously and tried to gently dismiss their requests. Seeing that she wasn't going to perform any more spells for them, most of the girls decided to go gloat of their good fortune to the children that had remained at the orphanage. Pepa was keeping a safe distance from the children, having flown up to perch herself on top of the building, ready to dart off at a moments notice.

"Lady Kiima, Miss Ranma is going to come back, won't she?" Riisu asked Kiima, tugging at the bottom of the woman's blouse.

"I don't know, why don't you ask her nicely?" Kiima patted the girl on the top of her head and looked towards Ranma.

"I guess if I have time." Ranma answered, crossing her arms briefly before waving one hand flippantly. It had been a fun diversion to be around the Phoenix for a time. Not that she would ever admit out loud that entertaining a bunch of children had been one of the better moments since coming to this wretched city.

Riisu nodded with a big smile on her face. "Can the fairy come too?"

"Oh definitely." If she was more vindictive she may just leave the fairy here.

"Come back soon, okay?"

"Sure thing." Ranma watched the little girl dash off and sighed, feeling like she was finally free from small children for the day. Taking the opportunity, she slipped out of the front door as Kiima said a quick good bye to Samosa. Feeling the cool air against her back as it went through her torn tunic, Ranma checked the funds that she had with her and waited for Kiima to finally exit the building.

"So— um—." Ranma started, wondering how she should word this. "Do you know of any good places to buy clothes?"

"I thought you liked your rags?" Kiima asked in amusement.

"I do, but I guess I do need a couple new tunics."

"Well I have seen a couple but I don't know how good they are." The white haired girl admitted with a shrug.

"I guess it doesn't hurt to look."

* * *

Kasumi tucked her hands in closer to her body as she walked down the slim street. Pepa had failed to return and the weather looked like it might take a turn for the worse again so she decided to brave the city on her own. She wasn't as brave as Ranma but she could handle shopping on her own. It was something she had done for many years now back in Nerima so it shouldn't be as nerve wracking as it was. Unlike Nerima where she was simply an oddity, while a large amount of the population in Lutansk saw her as the enemy.

Greeting the shopkeeper as she closed the door behind her, Kasumi paused long enough to wipe her boots on a mat before continuing in. "I was looking to buy a few things." She had been here before and it had a good supply of everything.

"Such as?" The elderly man behind a counter asked, a wall of general supplies behind him.

"Fabric, approximately six square meters along with a stuffing material. But I'm not sure what you have available." She explained, glancing around to see if there was anything else that may catch her eye. No one else was in the store so she had the shop keepers full attention.

"It would help if you told me what you were making." He rubbed at his chin.

Kasumi smiled just a little bit more at the question. "Well I'm making a pair of cushions to kneel on. Wooden floors are nice but they aren't very comfortable."

"I have some left over material that will work for padding, and I'll have to see what I have left for the fabric."

"Thank you." She watched him head for the back, happy that gold helped smooth over any reservations he may have had about dealing with a tiefling.

* * *

Hovering outside of the window to Kasumi and Ranma's new apartment, Pepa was faced with the challenge of opening it. Kasumi wasn't coming to the window after her repeated knocking so that must mean that something horrible had happened inside and it was up to her to save the day. And then they could all go shopping together! Ranma had given her this important task and she wasn't going to fail! Rubbing her hands together in a way she had seen Ranma do, Pepa bent down and took hold of the bottom of the window.

Grunting and with her wings fluttering rapidly behind her, the window remained unmoving briefly before shooting up uncontrollably to slam into the top. Squeaking in surprise, she rushed into the apartment just as the window slammed down behind her.

"Kasumi?!" She called out, flittering about while searching for the Dragon tiefling. Checking underneath several of the scrolls that were still not sorted, she gave up her search, and settled down on the parchment. Pepa was about to continue her quest when she noticed some of the writing on the parchment. "Ooh what's this?"

* * *

Entering the tailor's shop along with Kiima, Ranma briefly scanned her surroundings before a middle aged woman approached them. Wearing a long burgundy dress to her shins that only lightly hugged her figure, she greeted them politely but appeared to recognize Ranma in some way. The shop took up the entire bottom floor of a two story building near the outer wall of the city. There were different styles of clothes hung up on the wall and rolls of fabrics hanging on spools.

"Good afternoon ladies, how can I help you?" The woman asked Kiima more than her.

"I'm looking for some new clothes." Ranma answered, earning a very thorough once over by the woman.

"Are these loaned?" The shopkeep asked, bringing up a hand as though she was going to pick at the fabric, but turned it into crossing her arms.

"It's what I like." Ranma answered, not knowing why she would have loaned clothing but feeling like it may have been an insult. " So do you have something like this?" She asked.

"Not exactly this style." The woman picked at the front of Ranma's tunic. "Were you expecting alterations as well?"

"If you can." She was more than capable of doing them on her own, but a professional would likely do a much better job, and spare her the tedious task with a needle and thread.

"What were you looking to get?"

"Two or three tunics and an equal amount of pants."

"Skirts or dresses? Undergarments?"

"No— well maybe some underwear." Those were less worn out but perhaps it would be best if she prepared for when they needed to be replaced.

"I'll need to get some measurements, please follow me."

Following the woman to a curtained off area in the middle of the shop, there was a small rectangular platform in the center raised up approximately thirty centimeters from the floor with the area round it clear of obstructions. Another curtain was hung in the back, creating another small room.

"Would you mind removing your outer clothing?" The woman asked, closing the curtain to cut them off from the outside before heading over to grab a tape measure from a small table nearby with supplies for temporary alterations to clothing. "It will make my measurements more accurate."

Stripping down to her underwear and the close fitting tunic she wore for warmth, Ranma stepped up onto the platform to be measured. There was little difference to the dozens of times she had been measured while grown up, save that more attention was paid to how her body curved, and the more complicated area around her breasts.

"So why do you want something in that style?" The tailor asked, bringing the tape measure around briefly to measure the fullest part of Ranma's breasts.

Ranma blushed heavily at the contact and she noticed that Kiima had seen her reaction. "It's just what I like." She answered.

"Oh— I would have just expected something more— feminine." The tailor explained while measuring the width of Ranma's shoulders.

"Why's that?" Ranma glanced quickly at Kiima who was wearing similar clothing to her own normal wear, although fitted to the form underneath. She saw no reason why she should suddenly be required to dress like Kasumi or Nodoka.

"Rumors travel quite quickly I'm afraid." The woman admitted.

Ranma stiffened, knowing how her reputation preceded her now. "And what do they say about me now?"

"Nothing I would ever repeat to a customer." The tailor moved to Ranma's front and looked doubtfully at her hooves. "But it's still strange that a pretty girl like yourself doesn't want something to flatter her figure."

"I have enough to worry about, flattering my figure is the least of my concerns." She stepped down from the platform as the woman moved towards the break in the curtain.

"Did you have a preference for color?"

"Anything that goes with red." She answered, not wanting to detract from her rare hair color. Unconsciously pushing a non-existent strand of hair from her eyes.

"I'll be back in just a moment." The woman bowed her head slightly and backed out through the curtain.

"Hmm." Kiima drew her attention. "Is noticing the figures of others a major concern?"

"Huh?" Ranma asked.

"It was hard not to notice how you paid attention to my body earlier." Kiima smiled mischievously.

"Wha— wha— what?" Ranma stammered and blushed heavily, having thought that she had been unnoticed. She was saved from explaining herself as the tailor returned with several tunics of various colors and styles in her arms.

"Do any of these catch your eye?" The woman asked as she hung them up on a wooden rod running along the wall. She had listened to Ranma and brought tunics that were close to her original style but she did notice that they were more unisex. A trait that would vanish the moment they were fitted to her form.

"These two." She indicated the two more masculine ones. The first was a dark red and almost identical to her normal style but was split completely down the front with the left side folded over the right, and kept together by ties. The other a light green in more of a local style with the neck opening curving to the right arm into a decorative piece that ran to the bottom.

'This might not be so bad.' She thought, shrinking down her wings and flattening them against her back so she could put on the first tunic. The tailor went to work playing with the fit. After a few pins were inserted to pull parts of the fabric in, the woman stepped away to get Ranma's input. "It really doesn't have to be so tight." She tugged at the waist that was cutting in sharply.

"But it's not tight." The woman grabbed at a good amount of excess material. "See?"

"Oh." Ranma never spent a lot of time in front of a mirror and with how her hips flared out dramatically, her waist looked positively tiny. "Still, I'd like it taken out a bit more."

"Just a second." The woman let out the material further and shook her head. "Mark my words, when your waist is no longer so trim, you'll wish you didn't hide it." She shook her head and made small marks on the fabric with a pencil.

"She's part Succubus, she's cursed to take her body for granted forever." Kiima joked at Ranma's expense.

Ranma felt like she had been betrayed before remembering that everyone now knew her lineage. "Oh please, you have no idea what Succubae are like. If I didn't actually take care of myself I'd be as wide as my mom. Not me though, not an extra gram of fat." Smirking, she cocked her hips to one side and planted her hands on her waist.

"How many kilos did you say?" Kiima pointed towards Ranma's breasts.

"You don't have to be so jealous Kiima, I'd share if I could." She remarked haughtily, pushing her chest out and crossing her arms. She was about to needle Kiima about her smaller bust but she ended up poking her finger with one of the pins as she tried to pose herself to show off her impressive chest. Hissing in mock pain, she stuck her finger in her mouth. The pin prick hadn't hurt, just a reflexive action to the brief shock.

"I think that's a sign I should get back to work." The tailor laughed along with Kiima at her. The woman was still smirking as she wrote down measurements on a small piece of parchment. "Are you able to make your wings bigger as well?"

"I can." Ranma admitted, a little uncomfortable discussing them.

"Show me please." The woman paused in her writing. "After taking that blouse off."

Rolling her eyes at the implication that she would be dumb enough to grow them out while constrained, she pulled off the tunic, and showed the tailor the full size of her wings. Tall enough that the ends would have dragged on the ground if she wasn't standing on a raised platform, Ranma rolled her shoulders around, unused to the added weight.

"I can see why you keep them smaller." Kiima remarked, patting at some of the dark membrane. Ranma pulled back her wing, shrinking away from the foreign contact. Seeing that Kiima looked hurt by her reaction, she struggled to figure out why that would be. "Sorry." The Phoenix girl took a step back.

"Nah it's okay." She wasn't able to figure out what Kiima was upset about. Ranma could feel the tailor behind her measuring how much more vertical space was taken up on her back. While where they attached to her back remained the same, the membrane did stretch lower, and the wing bones grew in size. "Is that all you needed?" She looked over her shoulder, inadvertently bumping the woman as her wing shifted. "Oops."

"Yes— that's all I needed." The tailor grimaced briefly before giving her some more space. Ranma immediately shrunk them back down to a medium size. "This is definitely going to be more work than usual." The woman spoke to herself, writing down more notes.

"Is it going to cost a lot more?" Ranma asked, she had neglected to ask for a possible price, realizing that she did need new clothing, and if this woman really wanted to overcharge her she'd just walk out.

"Give me a moment." The woman started to rapidly write on a new sheet of paper and mouthing numbers too quickly for Ranma to figure out. "Twenty five pieces of gold."

'Twenty five?' Ranma's jaw dropped in shock before she could stop herself. Twenty five gold was equal to two months rent.

"On the high side of course. You haven't decided on the colors you'll want, I don't know how long the modifications will take, and there's always a twenty percent surcharge for female clothing."

"If I may." Kiima coughed into her right hand. "I have eighteen children who will be needing at least one new outfit each within the month. I would be amenable to buying exclusively from your store if you'll provide a discount."

"Eighteen children? That's no small task." The woman tapped her pencil against her chin in thought before turning back to her. "Thirteen for everything you asked for, assuming that your Phoenix friend will sign an agreement."

She was still being slightly overcharged but from what she had seen this woman produced high quality clothing. "That sounds good." Ranma nodded before looking to Kiima.

"Agreed." Kiima gave her a sly smile.

"Then I better finish up with this other blouse." The tailor hummed happily to herself as she gathered up the other tunic Ranma had picked out to hand to her.

* * *

Happy with her purchase, Kasumi was slowly making her way back to the apartment with a happy smile adorning her face. Even though she had been overcharged by one gold piece, she had come out with enough material two make two kneeling pads as well as one for Pepa. Pausing in the alleyway she was passing through to secure her package better, she felt very good at the result of her excursion. It would have been much more pleasant with Ranma or even Favian to accompany her but it felt good to accomplish something on her own.

She was just about to resume her walk home when a strong hand was placed roughly on her left shoulder. "Yes?" Kasumi slowly turned, confused and a little frightened over the sudden contact. "Can I help you?" She asked the older man and his three companions.

"Yes." He sneered and violently pushed her. Crying out in surprise, she fell on her hip, and spilled her supplies against a nearby building. "You can give me back my son." He stared into her golden eyes with complete hatred.

"Your son?" She asked in shock, having never been outright attacked by anyone before.

"Damn dragon!" The youngest man yelled and she was completely unprepared for the boot that hit her in the face. "Don't you dare look at my brother with those dead eyes!"

Kasumi clutched at her face, the world spinning around her, and cried into her hands. "Why are you doing this?" Her shoulders shook and she tried to slide away from her attackers. 'Why isn't anyone helping me?' Through her tears she tried to search for help but realized that she had inadvertently hidden herself from view.

"Your kind brings nothing but death and misery." The one who had pushed her said. "It's time we were able to give some of it back." All three of them pulled clubs out that had been hidden beneath their jackets.

"Please— I'd never." She started to breath rapidly, staring up at the three men in horror.

"Enough lies!" The third yelled and lunged towards her.

Kasumi hastily brought up a protective shield around herself, the club bouncing harmlessly off of the transparent orange bubble around her. The man took several more swings before trying to spit on her. "Please stop." She begged, hurting from the blow to her face, but she was now relatively safe behind the barrier so long as she could keep it active.

"What are we supposed to do now?" The one who had kicked her paced angrily around the outside of her shield.

"If we wait around, somebody might notice." The third snarled.

"We won't have to wait long." The eldest swung his club around before balancing the tip on her barrier. "This rannit is already sweating from the effort." (5)

Kasumi gasped at the insult and refocused her efforts on maintaining the barrier. She didn't have enough practice with this kind of spell to channel it effectively. A minute or two was all she had before she would be exhausted and she wasn't able to move while the shield was up.

Wiping some sweat from her brow, she jerked as the youngest man took several swings at the barrier. She could feel the barrier wavering as she rapidly ran out of reserves. 'Wait, why am I waiting?' Immediately she began to scream for help. "Someone help! I'm being attacked in the alley!"

"Shut up you stupid bitch!" She heard one of them yell and the added distraction caused her barrier to fail with a soft pop.

"Someone help me!" She screamed and curled herself up into a ball to try and protect herself.

* * *

Ranma gave the Phoenix girl walking next to her a curious glance out of the corner of her eye. There were a lot of mixed signals she was suddenly getting from her sparring partner. Up until today their relationship had been mostly professional and bordering on friendly. But in the span of a few hours Ranma had been invited deeper into Kiima's life than she had ever expected. On top of that, Kiima had not objected to her attraction.

Glancing around and trying to sense Pepa, she wondered what the reason was for Kasumi declining her invitation to go shopping. Ranma could sense that Kasumi wasn't at the apartment but she was incapable of getting an exact position from such a distance without a spell being cast.

"Why are we walking?" Kiima asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"What? You don't find it relaxing?" She asked. Walking felt nice and normal, with nothing that should make her uncomfortable.

"It depends on who I'm with." The white haired girl responded after a moment of hesitation.

"So is it?" Ranma asked, feeling her face heat up, and happy that the streets were mostly deserted.

"I'm not sure." Kiima answered slowly. "Ranma— you're attracted to me right?"

"Um— well— that is to say—." She gulped and fidgeted with her fingers. "Would you not like it if I was?"

"I honestly don't know." The white haired girl seemed more composed but Ranma could see that Kiima was flustered as well. "I've never thought about it. Relationships or even friends have always been the last thing on my mind."

"I— understand— I think." Her mood fell along with her wings, imagining that her attraction to girls may have tainted or destroyed another friendship. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

"It was only just a little." Kiima admitted shyly, her large white wings shuffling before fitting tighter against her back. "And truth be told I was really flattered."

"You were?" Ranma asked far too excitedly before catching herself, the tip of her tail happily flicking back and forth. "I mean, you were?" She asked with far more control.

"Definitely, all these landlings look at me like I'm a freak and other Phoenix were always too afraid of me." Kiima moved slightly closer to her. "So— I'm not adverse to trying something."

"Me either." She admitted, feeling a whole symphony of emotions rushing through her head. Should she really be trying this? She was a man and what Kiima was suggesting was not something for a man. While a very large part of her wanted to do it, a smaller but very important part wondered if she should. "Maybe take it slow? Like really slow? Just holding hands slow?"

"Sure." Kiima hesitantly held out a hand, briefly rubbing her fingers together nervously.

'Now?' Ranma thought in horror before mechanically taking the gloved hand, feeling the scales even though the material. "Sure." She nodded, trying to sound more confident than she really was. "So— why did you touch my wing earlier?" Ranma asked as they walked, incredibly nervous with the physical contact, and whether or not other people would see.

The white haired girl's face lit up with realization. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

"Nah it's fine, I'm just not used to people touching me— there." Ranma added to herself that she wasn't used to being touched at all. "But there seemed to be a reason you did it."

"I'm not sure if Succubae have ways to do it, but for us Phoenix it's a sign of great trust. Back— before, it wasn't uncommon to see close friends or couples preening one another."

"If they do have anything special for that kind of thing I wouldn't know, I only met my mom a couple months ago, and we're not exactly on the best of terms." She admitted.

"So you grew up surrounded by landlings?"

"I wouldn't put it like that— but yes I've always been around mortals." She shrugged, feeling a tickling on her senses, and recognizing that it was Kasumi casting a big spell. 'Wait— that's a barrier.' Ignoring Kiima's question on why she wasn't raised by her mother to focus more on what was going on with Kasumi. 'Why is she still keeping it up?'

"Ranma?"

"I think Kasumi is in trouble, come on." Rushing off into the air without waiting for Kiima's response, she headed in the direction of her apartment. Going past Kasumi's location once, Ranma swung back around, and saw three men. Two that looked to be in their thirties and a third who was over fifty. Flaring her wings before tucking them in close to her body, she dropped down into the alleyway just as Kasumi's barrier ended.

Catching the youngest man's wrist before he could even start to bring it down towards Kasumi. "You have five seconds to give me a good reason for me not to break you." She said quickly, not allowing him to move his arm in the slightest, and breathing heavily through her nose.

"Favian's slave." The man gasped.

"Not a good reason." Snapping his wrist with a quick jerk of her hand, Ranma brought her free one forward for a palm strike to his chest. She felt the satisfying crunch as several of his ribs broke before he was thrown through the air to bowl over the other younger man and crash into the far wall of the alley.

"Ranma!" Kasumi cried out happily.

"Give me a minute." She strode purposely towards the downed pair, ignoring the eldest of Kasumi's attackers to focus on the one scrambling to get to his feet. The man fumbled on his knees to find his club that had become buried in the snow. Ranma nearly missed movement out of the corner of her eye as the eldest attacker stabbed at her with a small blade. Side stepping, his blade only cut her tunic near her stomach. Her eyes widened as he moved with surprising quickness to use his other hand to bludgeon her with his club.

"You killed Lethanial, I thank you for that." He shouted, using his knife and club in a flurry of strikes that she found hard to avoid until she realized that he was attacking in a pattern. "But I won't let you stop us from bringing justice to another Dragon!"

Ranma waited for his pattern to repeat and finally his left wrist with both hands. 'Damn he's actually pretty strong.' She struggled to hold him in place before he tried to bring his club down on her head. Rolling his hand over and twisting his body to the side, she slipped the knife from his hand, and used it to slash him across his face.

"So you won't forget this." She snarled, performing a high spin kick to strike him in the back of the neck with her heel to drive him face first into the snow.

Shaking slightly from the adrenaline coursing through her body, Ranma slowly turned her head to face the last of Kasumi's attackers. He still had his weapon but he was visibly trembling and looking between both of his downed partners.

"Fuck this." He threw his club away and started to run away from her.

Ranma snorted and relaxed, negligently raising a hand in his direction, and causing a large gust of wind to hit him in the back of the head. Knocking him clear across the street to slide face first into a building.

"Thank you." Kasumi cried, latching on to her like a life preserver.

She stiffened at the contact briefly before wrapping her arms around the large girl. "It's alright, you're safe." She patted Kasumi on the back and let the Tendo girl cry into her shoulder. Kasumi's face was marred by a boot print but seemed otherwise unharmed.

"Why?" The blonde choked out. "Why did they want to hurt me?"

"I don't know." She let Kasumi continue to cry while she watched Kiima roughly roll over the man with the broken ribs. Removing her white gloves, she ripped through his coat with her talons to see a tattoo on his upper arm.

"I knew I had seen this man before, he's a member of the guard." The Phoenix girl looked at the man with disgust. "I notified actual guards to follow me. The landlings should be here soon enough."

"Thanks." Ranma nodded to Kiima in appreciation for her forethought. "It's alright Kasumi, you don't have to worry about them anymore." She rubbed Kasumi's back, feeling the other tiefling's added warmth through her clothes. "Think you can walk back?"

Kasumi nodded, slowly pulling away from her. "Thank you Ranma— and you as well Lady Kiima." Kiima simply gave a short grunt in response and crossed her arms, watching them with a slight frown.

* * *

Two days later

Landing with a slight hop near Favian's home, Ranma straightened out some imaginary flaw in her new clothing. The tailor had done an impeccable job with all of the modifications, even coming up with a better way for her wings to fit through the top. Instead of just two vertical slits, there was a large square with the top portion still attached that would be clasped at the bottom once her wings were through. Getting the clasp closed wasn't the easiest thing in the world but she'd take that over ripping it accidentally. The color had been magically altered so it would never fade, dark navy blue for the pants, and teal for the tunic. There was a minor enchantment on everything she purchased to provide some reprieve from the weather but it would run out in a little over a month.

Knocking on the door, she waited for her former instructor to have one of his servants answer. She glanced behind her to make sure no one was staring again. That was the one major flaw with her clothing, it showed off the curves of her body, and men were really starting to notice her more. It was both annoying and ego boosting to draw so much attention. Kiima thought they looked good on her and that was more important than a bunch of guys she didn't care about ogling her form.

Since the attack on Kasumi, the Dragon tiefling had remained mostly at home unless Ranma was with her. The three men who had assaulted her were being kept in jail for the moment until a trial later this week. Ranma's burgeoning relationship with Kiima was put on hold as she tried to make sure Kasumi was going to be alright.

Finally a servant arrived to allow her in and took her to where Favian was currently moving around the bottom floor of his library looking for something. The library was sunk down into the ground, with a ornate wooden walkway around the second story, and a set of steps to get to the floor. Several large wooden chairs with plush padding were arranged in a circle at the center of the room. Along with books there were various artifacts hanging from the walls or placed on ornate pedastals.

"Right on time." Favian waved to her to come down and Ranma ignored the steps to simply drop from the second story, using her wings to slow her descent just before touching down. "How's Kasumi?" He asked, taking a seat in a large comfy chair.

"Better but still shaken up." Ranma answered neutrally and took one of the nearby seats.

"I'll try to stop by for a visit." He stared downwards briefly with an unreadable expression. "And how are you? I see that you've purchased some new clothing."

"Yea— I kind of had to, the rest were falling apart." She answered, happy with her purchase even if it did mean more unwanted attention from members of her true gender.

"You certainly look much more respectable."

"Thanks— I guess." She puffed up slightly at the praise.

"Almost like you're a proper young lady." He joked, popping the small ego bubbles he had.

Laughing sarcastically, she let her wings drape over the arm of the chair, and slid her butt forward to be reclining. "Another misconception I'll have to remedy." She snorted.

"Indeed." He chuckled to himself and accepted a cup of tea from one of the servants, who immediately moved over to offer her one. Sitting herself back up, she accepted the drink with a curt nod.

"You know, if you really want to make Kasumi feel better, give her some of your tea." She suggested. Supplies in the city for luxury items were low or nonexistent.

"I'll be sure to bring some when I visit. Maybe I'll see if I can bring enough for your friends amongst the Phoenix."

Ranma paused while taking a sip of her tea. "There's a lot of things they could use. Tea would be the last."

"Yes I've heard of the conditions they now live in. But they refuse most offers of assistance without giving something in return. I know that the few warriors they have left, along with your friend Kiima, are working for the town guard."

"But if they accepted it, would you help them?" She asked seriously, leaning forward in her seat to stare into his eyes.

"If they accept, I'll do what I can." He answered without hesitation.

"Well I know there's a sizable bill for getting the children more clothing. I could act as a go between for that." She offered, one of the reasons she chose to accept his invitation was to see about getting more help for them. The Phoenix were capable of paying back the money but it would be weeks before they could earn the amount and if Favian would help then they could use the money for other necessities.

"Not a bad suggestion— that will of course ingratiate yourself with Kiima, correct?" Favian replied suggestively.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She answered far too rapidly.

"It's alright." He laughed to himself. "Your relationships are your own business although I would be quite cross if you were involved with Kasumi at the same time."

"It's not like that!" She protested, feeling her face heat up at the suggestion. Kasumi and Kiima? At the same time? Briefly thinking of the possibilities, she slapped herself for such a thought, and settled into the chair to glare at the man. Deciding that this was just another of his little games. "So is the reason you asked me to stop by just to try and embarrass me?"

"I don't need a reason for that. Although if you're in such a hurry to get past small talk, perhaps I should be more direct on why I asked you to come here today." Reaching to the side of his chair, he pulled out a long rectangular wood box to put into his lap. Reverently ran his hands across the top and along the sides. Pressing his thumb on to an ornate silver lock, there was a soft click, and the top of the box popped open a hair.

"What is it?" She asked, curiosity making her lean forward on her chair, and caused her tail tip to twitch excitedly. Having retrieved her fair share of artifacts over the years, she knew that whatever was in the case was something valuable.

"It's something I've debated on giving you for some time now. Long has it sat in my collection collecting dust and now—." Pulling out a sword in it's sheath, he slowly handed it across to her. "It's yours."

"Mine?" Ranma took the sword and inspected the weapon. Immediately she noticed that the handle had a funny backward curve, opposite of a katanas curve. But other than that it seemed to be more of a work of art. A deep burgundy scabbard with a strangely shifting quality to the wood grain underneath the reflective varnish. The hand guard was smaller than normal with a swirling pattern towards the center with flecks of gold hidden within a strange dark metal. And the hilt was wrapped with a dark brown silk braided with leather.

"All yours, a replacement for the one you destroyed to kill Lethanial. " Favian explained.

'I don't know.' She would have prefered to have her own sword constructed to her own specifications. Ranma could see that this one was very beautiful but Favian may have confused it's physical attractiveness for a solid design. Something about it was tickling at her senses though, as if she had heard of this design before. "What kind of sword is this?" She asked, feeling a hint of magic emanating from it.

"You may have heard of them, they are called in the Old Elven tongue, Fea'megil." (6)

"Woah!" Ranma immediately held the blade back towards Favian. "Wait, you're joking again, aren't you?" She turned her head to look at him out of the corner of her eye suspiciously.

"I assure you that what you hold in your hands is an unbound Fea'megil." He reiterated.

"You can't have one of those." She scoffed, having come across several that were already bound on various jobs over the years. Bound to a soul, they could never be used by any other, and they were often enchanted so that anyone else would be harmed just by touching one. The last one had been created thousands of years ago, before the Elves split into two races.

"Prove me wrong then, draw the sword." He leaned back in his chair and crossed his hands on top of the sword case still in his lap.

"Well alright then." She gulped and gripped at the hilt with her right hand. Ranma could feel some of her aura being drawn into the sword, as though tiny hands were reaching through her skin to grasp at the incorporeal underneath. 'Could this actually be what he says?'

Slowly she started to slide the blade free from the scabbard, she suddenly felt an overpowering urge, and pulled it clear with one motion. For a moment she looked at the black piece of metal, curved in the reverse, and only three fourths as long as it should be. There was a brief but hard tug on her aura, the metal was surrounded by a soft white glow before a transparent red blade formed in the proper curved position and length. The metal of the sword changed, a rectangular line running along the top edge melted into the material forming a complicated knot pattern, immediately below this design near the hilt ancient lettering appeared in the same way.

"Wow." She breathed, feeling the miniscule tug on her aura from the sword to keep the blade activated. Ranma moved the blade about in the air, noticing just how natural it felt, as though it had been made just for her.

"That does confirm a suspicion of mine." Favian stood up from his chair to inspect the faintly glowing blade that she held in her hand. "It's said that these reflect the bearers natural affinity. Fire appears to be yours." (7)

"I do like red." She tried to focus the opposite element, water, and the sword responded by changing color to blue. As soon as her focus stopped, the blade reverted back to red. Cutting off all of her aura, the blade faded from existence, leaving just the decorated metal. "Any idea what it says?" Ranma asked, for some reason she could feel out how to use the new weapon.

"Inno'amil, I believe." He leaned in to see the decorative script better.

"I've heard the first part before, it means heart."

"And where have you heard Old Elven?" Favian raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"What? I've been in enough Elf ruins to have had to pick up a few words of it. Most of their traps are riddles or they like to threaten you with really flowery language." She shrugged.

"Linguistics? Archeology? I always took you for a simple brute." He remarked with a smirk.

"Hey!" She protested with a knee jerk reaction. "I am one of the best adventurers around."

"Am? Or was? I thought Ranma Saotome died a short time ago?" Favian asked, referencing their talk after she had nearly been captured by Raxus.

She glared at him, angry that he would bring that up in a joke. "Name or no name, that doesn't change how good I am. Not even this weak body can slow me down."

Smiling reassuringly, he patted her on the shoulder. "That's a much better attitude to have, but you have never been weak."

"I suppose it is." She brought her new sword up and across her body to stare at the inscription on it, a new concern creeping into her mind. "Will this still work if I get changed back? I remember, you said that he changed my soul."

"That's tough to say." He answered and rubbed his chin. "A soul is not a static thing, it's never the same from one moment to the next. My guess— is that no, it would not matter. The part of you that makes you unique, is not so limited as to what form it conforms to."

"Guess I'll find out when it happens." She nodded to herself, realizing that focusing on it, she could now read the name of the sword where before she had struggled with the unfamiliar script. Not that she was any closer to knowing the full meaning, but she wouldn't be forgetting it.

"I don't know what I can give you in return for this." Ranma carefully slid the metal blade back into the scabbard and looked up at her former teacher. "What— can you want?" She asked nervously.

"I've made a great deal of mistakes with how I've handled the situation with you and Kasumi. You're both so much better than I am, yet you have been the ones to suffer for my hubris." Favian closed his eyes, his entire body taking the posture of a defeated man.

"Your hubris?" Ranma cut in before sighing. "You're the only one who helped either of us. I'd be dead if it wasn't for you getting me healed. Who knows what would have happened to Kasumi if you hadn't been around." Sighing again, she rose to her feet, and placed the sword delicately down on the chair before facing the elderly man.

"Those were selfish actions, you shouldn't read too much into them." He attempted to dismiss the significance of his actions.

"For someone so smart you're really dumb." She shook her head in disgust at his dismissal at saving her life and what she was about to do. Taking in a deep breath, she stepped forward and hugged him around his chest. "Thank you." She mumbled into his robe as he stiffened at the contact. "Thank you— for everything." Ranma felt a small amount of wetness form at her eyes. "No one has ever helped me as much as you have." She choked out.

Favian relaxed and hesitantly placed his arms around her shoulders to give her one reassuring squeeze. "I doubt that very much." He responded.

"But if you tell anyone— ever about this— I will kill you." She hated herself for showing weakness, but for the moment, she could understand why her mother and sister enjoyed physical contact so much.

"Understood." He started to laugh and then she couldn't stop herself from joining in.

* * *

Author Notes

1 - Slavery is not universal but many places will uphold the practice in order to keep diplomatic relations so long as it doesn't directly violate one of their own laws.

2 - Knock knock, Penny.

3 - Amazingly enough this is actually a completely innocent suggestion from Nodoka. While homes are heated as detailed in a prior note, they are still normally quite cool due to lack of insulation, so sharing beds at night for warmth is a common practice.

4 - Raxus, killed a fully ascended Saffron then went on to help butcher almost all of the Phoenix.

5 - Rannit, a severe insult implicating not only the target but their entire family line are infernal garbage. Not very often uttered and in some cultures has started blood feuds.

6 - Literally "soul sword". I'm going to rip off some Tolkien for the language with this area of lore in the universe I'm creating. The time period the sword is from is very Elf focused, so why not? If I was properly writing it, there would be no apostrophe but I'm using it as a way to break up the words.

7 - Actually its primarily fire with earth thrown in. This actually comes from Nodoka's side of the family, because all of the eight major Succubus houses have developed specific affinities that they excel in.

World Info

Divine and Infernals can be divided into three levels.

- The most base or "true" are beings created purely from an attribute expressed by mortals. Because of this they are simple creatures with little concern or thought. This makes them highly destructive, especially for infernals who can be consumed by the need to destroy everything around them. They are not particularly liked by the higher forms who value more stability. Although many enjoy using them for their own purposes.

- The next step up were also originally created the same as their lower cousins but encompasses the full complexity of mortal attributes. Fully thinking and reasoning they are still bound by what created them. Although their attitudes and actions can range from mortal to completely alien.

- The highest level refers to an individual who sits as the literal focus for a mortal attribute, usually called a God or Lord. Immensely powerful, a plane of existence under them bends to their whims. Their strength is partially dependent on continued existence of their attribute and worship of them as deities. Details of how they come to power or what method is used to maintain a semblance of order is a discussion for another info dump.

Named Demon Lords

Thet - Lord of trickery and lies. Nothing is known specifically about this being, not the gender, appearance, personality, or even if it exists. Like the Black Dragons that it corrupted, it is unable to tell the truth in any way. It appears to have many infernal planes under it's sway, all of them a chaotic mess of demons, mortals, and the divine who are caught in endless webs of lies that are so vast and intricate, not even the reality around them can be trusted. Once caught in this web, escape is all but impossible.


	12. Loss Part One

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

* * *

Six days later

Inside of Ranma's apartment, Kiima sat a short distance away from her friend and the Dragon Tiefling she lived with. Kiima had grown accustomed to the Dragon in her midst but was not comfortable in Kasumi's presence. She spent her time around Kasumi waiting to see some evidence of ill intent. Even though nothing had appeared yet, it did not deter her but Ranma's relationship with the other female did. Kiima knew that Ranma trusted Kasumi implicitly and while the Succubus Tiefling wasn't perfect, she did seem to be an excellent judge of character. The blonde actually seemed to be generous, giving up the cushion she had sewn to Kiima instead of using it herself.

For now Kiima waited and watched to see who would be justified.

"If I may ask a question—." She broke into their discussion. "How do those circles work?" Ranma and Kasumi were occasionally referencing nearby pieces of parchment that contained detailed circles with writing.

"Well—." Ranma paused in thought. "Magic at it's most basic is just will and power. You have to have the will to impose your desires on reality but then the power is required to do it. Circles are really good at that."

"But how does that work with the circles— or enchantments for that matter?" Kiima rephrased her question, wanting a more specific answer.

"Because Ranma forgot that to make the will portion work, it has to be structured. If all you do is want something really badly it's very unlikely to happen no matter how much power you put behind it." Kasumi explained and grabbed a piece of parchment to rapidly draw something before showing it to Kiima. On it was a circle with a spell written out in words going around it. "The strongest spells are based around the circle as the structure because when you get to the end, the spell begins again. If not, it's like leaving a sentence without a period to end it."

"So when you have the circle right it just takes a little power to activate." Ranma added. "That's why pots and stuff enchanted to heat up can work. All it takes is someone's intent and the power is drawn from the ambient magic."

"That sounds complicated." She stared doubtfully at the piece of parchment before looking at some of the others that had multiple layers written in languages she didn't know.

"It is." Kasumi answered her remark without any sense of smug superiority Kiima expected. "But as strange as it may sound, once you get started and understand the basics then it becomes easier and easier."

'Must be nice.' She found the basic idea easy enough to understand but quickly gave up trying to understand their magical theory discussion. There was no way for her to relate to how to perform these feats because she lacked the ability. A trait she shared with the vast majority of her race. Kiima imagined that it must be like trying to explain the feeling of flight to a landling. Without being able to do it, there was no way to explain it.

Pausing in her introspection, Kiima eyed the fairy partially made of light as the creature flitted about the parchment, occasionally stopping to stare intently at a spell circle. She wasn't sure how to act around the tiny being although all the children enjoyed chasing her around immensely.

"Alright I think I got it." Kasumi straightened up in her kneeling position on the wooden floor and placed both hands out in front of her. Around the Tiefling a transparent white dome appeared. It was large enough to cover the young woman but not big enough to move around in. "How's that?"

"Seems pretty good." Ranma nodded. "Your barrier is much more stable." (1)

"I think I could keep this up all day." The Dragon Tiefling boasted happily before it popped like a large bubble at Ranma's gentle prodding with a finger. "Oops, I lost my concentration." Kasumi laughed in embarrassment at her mistake.

Kiima resisted the urge to be amused. "Could that be used as a weapon? I mean— create it so someone is caught halfway in it?"

"No." Ranma shook her head. "I thought about that when I first picked it up, but anything living is either pushed out or pulled in. Although that might work as a weapon in the right circumstances." The redhead tapped a delicate finger to her lips.

"I'll leave you two to your practice." She rose to her feet and stretched out her wings. "I need to go get changed for my shift on guard duty anyways."

"Be safe." Kasumi told her.

"I will." She responded absently and knelt back down to give Ranma a brief hug. The redhead glanced nervously between her and Kasumi before returning her embrace. Kiima noticed Kasumi's look of disapproval so she gave her friend and possible lover a quick kiss on the cheek. "Bye." She trailed out the word and sauntered out of the room, leaving Ranma frozen in place, a bright blush adorning her face.

* * *

Kasumi could not stop herself from frowning with as much disapproval as she could at Kiima's display. Made worse by how the girl was swishing her hips back and forth trying to catch Ranma's ever wandering eyes on the way out. She hoped that neither of them acting in such a scandalous manner when out in public. (2)

"Ah—hem." She cleared her throat to try and get Ranma's attention.

"Oh— right— where were we?" Ranma asked, clearly flustered, and with a blush matching her hair color still adorning her cheeks.

"With me waiting for you to follow after her like a loyal puppy." She increased her frown and looked away from the distracted redhead.

"I'm not going to follow after her— like a puppy." Ranma responded irritably at her remark. "Besides she's going to be on guard duty."

"I really don't understand why you two are carrying on like that." She shook her head.

"I'd be more than happy to— carry on like that with you." The other Tiefling offered with an awkward suggestive tone to her voice.

"You know how I feel about that." She purposely looked away from Ranma, remembering that a short time ago the cursed teen had proposed to her, and the fallout that resulted. Kasumi also remembered that it had taken a very short time for Ranma to move on to Kiima.

"And you don't want to try at all?" Ranma asked with a hint of hope in her voice.

"No—." Kasumi finally looked into Ranma's bright blue eyes. "I don't want to make things worse by giving you any false hope, I'm sorry."

"I guess that's for the best." The redhead admitted slowly, looking down at her hands nervously fidgeting with her tail in her lap.

"Are you planning to tell Kiima about yourself?" She asked, knowing that Ranma had kept why they had come to Lutansk a secret from the Phoenix girl.

"Of course." Ranma replied quickly before looking down once again. "I just need to figure out how to explain it to her."

"If you wait much longer, I'll tell her." She really didn't want to expose Ranma like that but she wasn't going to let this charade continue.

"I'll tell her soon." Ranma assured her and absently brought a hand up to where Kiima had kissed her on the cheek.

"I hope so." She whispered, not wanting the dubious honor of telling Kiima that Ranma had been committing a lie of omission.

* * *

Two days later

Ranma knelt on the pad Kasumi had sewn for her and stared at her sword laid out in front of her. The engraved name on it mocking her with it's presence. Casting the complex translation spell one last time, it brought her no closer to finding out the meaning. Throwing up her arms and wings in frustration, she wanted to find whoever created this translation spell and wring their neck.

"What use is a translation spell if you have to know the words?!" She exclaimed in frustration.

Snorting, she let her arms and wings drop back down. Knowing only half of its name was starting to drive her crazy and it was made all the worse that due to her bond with it, she knew exactly what the ancient writing said in Old Elven, but not what it translated to. Was it something from the one who made it? Did it describe her in someway? Something she would do? 'Who makes a translation spell that requires you to know the language in order to get it?'

Hearing the door open, she glanced back to see Kiima entering her apartment. Quickly looking back to her work, Ranma tried to discreetly bring up a hand to feel at the spot where the Phoenix girl had kissed her. It hadn't been anything special but she was thoroughly embarrassed to have been kissed in front of Kasumi.

"Obsessing over your sword again?" Kiima asked, dropping down behind her and wrapping her arms around Ranma's shoulders to lean over and look at the materials in front of her.

"No." She denied, ignoring the slight guilt she felt at Kasumi's words from the other night to lean back in order to fit better against the larger girl's body. "How was your patrol?" Breathing in deeply, she caught the strong smell of soap and shampoo, which meant Kiima had taken a bath before coming over. Ranma smiled a little bit wider as Kiima placed a gloved hand on her wing and ran it down the full length.

"Some of the landlings have heard that Ladon's operatives have been unusually busy of late. But how they would know that and not know who they were I don't know." Kiima looked around the room tiredly. "Where is your friend?"

"Kasumi's downstairs helping to make a quilt." Ranma answered, deciding to return Kiima's gesture by reaching behind her to gently ruffle some feathers on the Phoenix's right wing.

"Does she do nothing but sew?" Kiima twisted forward to sit hip to hip and facing her.

"She's scared to go out into the city alone and there isn't much to do here." She looked down sadly and leaned forward to rest her head on Kiima's shoulder. Ranma hated that Kasumi may as well have been a prisoner in this city just because she was a Tiefling.

"Will she be gone long?" The white haired girl asked casually.

"I don't know, why?" She shrugged.

"I wanted to ask you some questions." Kiima backed away slightly, letting Ranma nearly fall forward without the support.

"What questions?" Ranma asked with a hint of worry. Questions might be simple or they might be about feelings or her past. Explaining the latter to Kiima was something she wanted to push back as long as possible.

"Questions about you. I feel like there's something I'm not getting."

"What's not to get?" She asked nervously, wondering if she should just find a way to escape the situation or to lie.

"Like where you're from, how your father ended up raising you, who trained you?"

"Where I'm from is easy, Juuban. Anything else?" She answered evasively, playing with her fingers, and then moving on to tugging her tail as Kiima narrowed her eyes due to her lack of response. "My Pop actually trained me, he's lazy and idiotic but when you get right down to it he's a really good martial artist." Ranma expanded, hoping that Kiima wouldn't catch that she hadn't answered the middle question.

Kiima sniffed and looked away. "I don't understand what the big secret could be. I would give anything to see my family once again— I want— need to know that there's a good reason for your mother to earn your contempt."

Ranma gulped at being reminded of the Phoenix's genocide but didn't volunteer the information the Phoenix girl was looking for.

"Ranma, I don't want there to be secrets between us— but— if it's something truly personal I guess I can wait until you're comfortable enough to tell me." The larger girl sighed.

"I don't want to say because you'll hate me." She blurted out and looked away in shame. Kiima didn't respond other than to stare at her in confusion. "It's why I came to this city."

"Maybe— maybe it's best you get it out of the way now." Kiima finally said.

"It's— it's— it's because I wasn't born this way." She admitted, trying to work up the courage to tell Kiima that this form was a curse, a violation of her very soul. "I was raised by my Pop because— my Mom abandoned me." Taking in a deep breath she finally felt like she had the courage needed to tell Kiima the rest. "Because I wasn't born a girl— or a Tiefling."

Kiima's head jerked back and the white haired girl looked her up and down. "Not born a girl? You mean— are you really a man?"

"Yes." She looked at Kiima hopefully. "I didn't want to lie to you— but everything got so confusing so fast."

"For how long?" Kiima asked neutrally.

"Have I been like this?" She asked and a nod was the bird woman's response. "Almost half a year." She admitted.

"Why haven't you changed back?" The bird woman asked a question Ranma had heard several times on her original search for a way back. A question often carrying the implication of her not wanting to find a way back. As though anything in her life would be so simply as a commonplace spell.

Ranma hung her head. She was happy Kiima was asking questions and hadn't left after calling her a freak. "I can't— the one who did it made so I couldn't change back. I came here to try and find a way around it."

"And why did they do it to you?"

"Because he's a petty asshole." She replied hatefully and seethed at the injustice, nothing she had done warranted this kind of torture.

"Will you— ever be able to change back?"

"I don't know." Ranma admitted, more to herself than Kiima. A way back seemed so far out of reach now that her only options existed on planes of existence beyond her grasp. "I understand if you don't want anything to do with me. I wouldn't— I'm just a selfish— just a selfish bitch." She had taken advantage of Kiima who was as starved for a friend as she was. Just as she had lied to Kasumi. A nice person wouldn't have treated her friends this way.

"I don't know how I would act if I was changed into a male or a landling but I think I can understand why you wouldn't tell anyone." Kiima placed a hand on Ranma's thigh, her talons digging in even through her gloves. "But I would like to know how you're going to make it up to me?" The Phoenix girl asked huskily and started to make little circles on Ranma's thigh with a talon.

"You don't hate me?" She shifted to sit closer to Kiima, looking up into her pale violet eyes hopefully.

"Disappointed that you didn't tell me sooner, but I don't hate you." Kiima shifted closer as though to lean forward for a kiss on the lips.

"Then— what can I do to make it up to you?" She whispered, leaning even closer, and arching her back to push out her chest even more. Kasumi shouldn't be back for some time, maybe since she had revealed a deep, and personal secret they might explore some physical secrets between each other.

"I know just the thing." The Phoenix girl replied with a half lidded gaze.

* * *

Two hours later, early evening

Ranma fidgeted, surrounded by a large number of Phoenix children. Some of the older kids were out with a few of the adults but that still left twelve of them for her. Pepa was hovering near her shoulder, alternating between nervous and excited to be able to play with all the cute bird people. Ranma had snagged the spell creature before coming over because there was no way she was going to do this alone.

"If you run into anything you can't handle, I'll be just upstairs." Samosa smiled deliriously before addressing the children. "Now I want you to be good for Miss Ranma." There were several chorused agreements and the Phoenix woman turned back to Ranma. "Good luck."

She tried to ask the elderly Phoenix a question but the woman had already rushed off to vanish up the stairs. Gulping, she turned back to see that many eyes were now locked on to her and Pepa. "Alright kids— uh— so what do you around here that's quiet?"

"Can you tell us a story?" One of the girls who had caught her last tale asked.

"Yea! A story!" Another girl spoke up causing the group to explode into demands.

"Alright a story." She held up her hands in defeat, Pepa having hidden behind her for protection, expecting the children to be rough with her once again. "How about you all take a seat in the other room and let me come up with one." Ranma suggested and they responded to her request with various levels of enthusiasm.

"Do you think Kiima tricked me?" She asked Pepa who nodded rapidly with an extremely amused smile on the her face. While Ranma's earlier line of thought had been leading to more intimate physical activities, Kiima had slipped in that Ranma take her shift for watching the children. Ranma blamed her physiology for going from depressed to aroused at the drop of a hat and how it had lead her to agree to anything Kiima had wanted. It was frustrating in more than one way.

"I guess the story of when I protected a caravan from some ogres." She mused, crossing her arms, and allowing her tail tip to flick back and forth. "Or maybe that time I escorted a party through that Elvish ruin?" She needed something that would keep the attention of a large group of children. "Well maybe they'd like to hear about me and Pop performing for money right after we got changed?"

* * *

"Miss Ranma?"

Ranma batted a hand weakly at the person shaking her shoulder, more interested in sleeping than telling another story.

"Miss Ranma it's getting late." Samosa shook her more forcefully.

"Late?" She finally opened her eyes to see that most of the children had gone to bed with a few stretched out on the floor where they had fallen asleep during the several tales she had to spin in order to satisfy their whims. There was a small weight on her lap and she looked down to see that Riisu had crawled halfway onto her in order to sleep. "Guess it is." She responded sleepily, too tired to figure out how she felt about being used as a pillow. Riisu seemed like a sweet little girl who had been through a lot so Ranma was happy to provide a brief moment of comfort.

"I've never seen a young woman so out of sorts with how to care for children." The Phoenix woman said in a whisper, her voice filled with amusement. Getting into a kneeling position next to her, Samosa ran a taloned hand through Riisu's hair, causing the girl to shift herself around before lying still once again.

Ranma felt like she had to defend her manhood but one difficult conversation per day was her limit. There was no good way to explain to Samosa that she was not a young woman and should not have experience taking care of children. However, considering how all the Phoenix kids seemed to love her, she also felt slighted for being called out of sorts.

"And just what am I doing wrong?" She asked, keeping her voice low to avoid waking any of the children.

"You're their toy, not the adult." Samosa reached out and gathered up Riisu who struggled weakly against being moved. "Would you please help me put them to bed?"

'I guess.' She thought to herself but nodded to the Phoenix woman. Nearby she saw that one of the girls had been able to grab Pepa and was clutching her like a stuffed animal. Smirking in amusement at Pepa's predicament, she padded across the room as silently as she could to where the fairy was captured.

"Help me." The fairy pleaded from her spot crushed underneath the child's arm.

"You owe me." She whispered and freed the now grateful spell creature before struggling to figure out a good way to pick up the girl who had been strangling Pepa. Sighing at inconvenience of bringing the children to their beds, Ranma didn't know what was so wrong with leaving them where they lay, it was their own fault if they found sleeping on the floor uncomfortable.

* * *

Four days later

Flopping down in one of the large chairs Favian had in one of the many rooms in his home dedicated to lounging, Ranma decided to jump right into it. "So what's so important?"

Kasumi gave her a cross look for being so blunt but didn't discourage her for being rude. "As always it's great to visit, but I do share Ranma's concern over the urgency of your request."

"I'm sure you've noticed the strange weather—."

"The lightning?" Kasumi asked, referencing that for the past several days lightning had been constantly rolling through the clouds. But there was never any thunder and the origin was always overtop the volcano Ladon called home.

"Yes the lightning— Ladon is summoning true Demons." The elderly man stated gravely.

"But if they'll be destroyed by the barrier, who cares?" Ranma shrugged. The only infernal beings that could enter the barrier were Tieflings and even then it was still constantly trying to repel them as well. True Demons, pure infernals, couldn't hope to get near the barrier.

"Don't be stupid, Ladon wouldn't be summoning shock troops for his army if he wasn't planning to use them." Favian shook his head at her short sightedness. "The council is not concerned about this. They think their precautions are enough to thwart any plot."

"What do you think is going to happen?" Kasumi asked fearfully.

"Sometime soon, Ladon's agents are going to try to bring down the barrier. If they're successful then there will be a real siege on the city." Favian summarized gravely. "When it happens I want both of you to meet me here. I'm making progress with the guard for coordinating a defense with the remaining Phoenix but we can't get separated."

"Why not? I can take out more of them with one spell than anyone else can." She asked, assuming that Favian just wanted to keep her safely locked up.

"Because you are not ready for Raxus, and Ladon is certainly going to send his favored son to retrieve you." The orange eyed man shook his head. "If you're off wasting time destroying cannon fodder then you're an easy and highly visible target." He finished as though she was an idiot.

"Fine." She crossed her arms, the last thing she wanted was to be hidden away, and treated as some sort of treasure to be acquired. Ranma had no desire to fight Raxus again but she couldn't sit by and do nothing. "And how's that fit in with me fighting Ladon? You teach me that spell and now you don't want me to use it?"

"Ladon will be fighting by proxy, so don't worry about him. This isn't all about you. There are far too many lives at stake for you to be acting on your own."

"Alright I understand." She conceded, if there was a battle over the city then she needed to be a team player. Ranma secretly wanted nothing to do with the fight. This wasn't her battle, why should she have to put her life on the line for people who treated her and Kasumi like dirt?

"Good." The elderly man handed Kasumi a small leather bag of holding. "A few spells I think will come in handy if a fight is inevitable. Although there may not be enough time to learn them all."

"Thank you." The Dragon Tiefling bowed her head briefly to the human.

"I'll send a messenger when I know more. But prepare as best you can." Favian said with enough finality to indicate that this conversation was over.

"Master Favian I wanted to ask if you had any plans for the Solstice?" Kasumi asked, tying the small bag to her belt.

"I didn't have any plans, why do you ask?" He questioned.

"Well I was hoping that you would come over for dinner. We don't have a lot to offer but you've done so much for us, and I know you don't have any family here." Kasumi explained nervously.

"I accept your most gracious offer." Favian nodded his head towards Kasumi. "Feel free to raid my pantry at any time if you are in need."

"Thank you." Kasumi bowed her head again.

"Hey Kasumi, will you be alright getting home?" Ranma asked, happy to break up the competition on who could be the most gracious.

"Somewhere you need to be?" Favian asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Um— well I was supposed to meet someone." She avoided directly answering the question.

"Kiima." Kasumi supplied helpfully.

"I haven't even seen her for the last three days." Ranma whined, Kiima had been busy, and she had been attempting to spend more time with her former fiance. All she had accomplished with her attentions was to cause more awkward tension between them.

"I should be fine— go ahead and visit your girlfriend." Kasumi remarked with a hint of distaste entering her voice.

"Thanks." She chirped, ignoring the subtle feeling of guilt over ditching Kasumi to spend time with Kiima. It was Kasumi who had ended their relationship and was refusing to make any effort to salvage the remains.

* * *

Favian watched the happy half Succubus trot from the room briefly before he regarded Kasumi. The blonde's hands were squeezed tightly into fists and her body was tense. He had been very busy lately trying to come up with a way to stop Ladon if the Dragon was able to bring down the barrier. And since he was no longer their teacher, he didn't interact with either of the Tieflings regularly. But he had rarely seen them being so passive-aggressive towards each other.

"Trouble at home?" He asked.

"Master Favian, what should I do?" Kasumi asked desperately. "Ranma finds any excuse to leave and is always doing— untoward things with that Kiima."

Pausing to digest Kasumi's outburst, he really would have liked to have more information before forming an opinion. "Opposed to doing untoward things with you?" He meant it as a joke but Kasumi gave him a foul look. "My apologies but I am not familiar with what is going on."

"Ranma asked me why I won't try— things with— her." Kasumi stressed her use of the female pronoun at the end. "I know my feelings about that and I don't want to hurt Ranma more by engaging in her— perversions."

Favian folded his hand in his lap and worked through the brief explanation Kasumi had given him. The blonde always used male pronouns when referring to Ranma in conversation so he had to take that into account. "Ranma being attracted to women is hardly unreasonable, raised as a man and Succubae are known to engage in relationships between women."

"I understand that." Kasumi responded sarcastically and rolled her golden eyes. "But I just can't seem to get Ranma to understand that as long as he's a she, I just can't engage in that behavior."

"And you've told Ranma this?"

"I tried— I think he understands that I care for him— but occasionally she'll still push for something I just can't do."

"I'm sure it's an uncomfortable situation for both of you." While he enjoyed giving out advice and the relationship between Kasumi and Ranma was a complex and diverting mess, he didn't know of a way to resolve their problems. Short of returning Ranma to his birth form, Kasumi would shun the cursed teens advances. Even if Ranma was able to find a way back, the red head's view of Kasumi may forever be tainted by the rejection.

"Do you know what I should do?" The blonde asked desperately, looking to him for answers he didn't have.

"No— I don't." He admitted. "But I think it would be a wise course of action to be decisive. If you can't be with Ranma unless she is a he then you'll need to be ready to face the consequences of that decision. It might also lead to Ranma choosing to leave your life completely."

"But I don't want that." Kasumi looked down despondently at her lap.

"Unfortunately, choices have consequences."

* * *

Eight days later, night of the Winter Solstice

Dorik would have prefered to be in his home, a warm meal before him, or maybe in bed with a busty maiden. But he did not have a choice. Ladon commanded him to bring down the barrier and he was unwilling to face the consequences of refusing. Strolling down the long corridor towards the very center of the city, he knew that the two twins were waiting a distance behind him, concealed within magic shadows. Gulping, he knew that they were here to see that he had succeeded and to kill him should he fail.

He had already passed several guards at the entrance to the tunnel using the excuse that he was doing an inspection of the barrier. A flimsy excuse but his position afforded him enough leeway to get away with it. There were periodic inspections of the mechanism keeping the city safe but he had avoided the tedious task.

The corridor widened as he neared the final gate where two guards stood on either side of the door. These two men had the power to seal off the only access point. Neither could be killed, incapacitated, or mind controlled without the tunnel sealing. Behind them was the chamber with the barrier's source and inside were ten more guards prepared to deal with any intruder capable of getting past the tunnel being sealed.

Passing by the two guards with the same excuse, the men being lulled into complacency by the lack of a threat. Past this point, not even a mortal carrying Infernal ancestry could enter without being killed from the potency of the barrier. It truly made all the prior precautions pointless. The guards at the exterior were more than capable of keeping mortals out.

"Master Dorik, you're here to inspect the barrier?" The highest ranking guard asked as he approached the pedestal in the center of the cylindrical room.

"That is what I said." He answered disdainfully. In a short time they would all be dead and he would need to prepare to greet Ladon's other children as they took the city.

"I'm sorry My Lord, it's just— we had an inspection three days ago. It's irregular to have another so soon."

"Do you have something useful to say?" He asked rhetorically, his eyes tracing the fragile focus that created the barrier.

Hovering ten centimeters above the ornate white pedestal was a thin golden ring twenty centimeters in diameter. A gentle golden glow appeared to flow like water down from the ring over the complex magical enchantments etched into the pedestal. The ring provided the anti-Infernal component and transferred its power to a tiny white copy of the tower standing at the center of the city. Once channeled upwards and through the power afforded by the ley line, the barrier was created and maintained. It was a gift by a God, to protect the island from harm so long as he existed. Dorik would never be able to harm this part of the barrier but it did have a weakness.

Struggling to push through the thick aura of magic surrounding the ring, his fingers finally closed around the model of the spire. With a quick flick of his fingers, the spire snapped in two, and fell to the flat top of the pedestal before rolling off to clatter on the stone floor. The ring's power reversed, leaving the glyphs to flow back into itself. Dorik was amazed that the simple action had worked, even through the thick stone and ground above him he could hear the spire breaking.

He paid no mind to the sudden screams of the guards around him as Reye and Leye butchered them in moments. When he finally looked, the white walls were stained with sprayed blood, and the only ones alive were the two guarding the last entrance.

"No need to be cautious with them." He told the twins. "Without the barrier being active the enchantments on them are no longer able to activate." That was one of the biggest flaws he had noticed. Not that he had ever planned to help correct the oversight. At least if they were able to seal the chamber whoever had been able to breach the defenses would have been trapped.

"Just between us—." He paused at the two brief screams of pain. "But why did a Dragon like Ladon wait so long to begin this? Our forces are so much stronger than the city's meager guard. What could he be wary of?" He wondered, finally stepping away from the pedestal.

"Father doesn't know fear or worry." Reye was suddenly next to him.

"Father has asked us to thank you for your help." Leye was on the other side.

Dorik felt a blade impale him from behind at the base of his ribs and another blade plunge into his right pectoral. On instinct he raise a barrier in a futile effort to defend himself. The two twins were pushed away by the magic, leaving their weapons in his body. Shakily bringing up his hands to gingerly touch the point of the curved blade protruding from his stomach, he fell to his knees, blood rapidly staining his clothing.

"Why?" He mouthed, unable to vocalize his question above a tiny whisper. In front of him the twins waited patiently, eyes gleaming maliciously as they waited to retrieve their blades. Dorik fell forward onto his side, the barrier around him vanishing, and he received no answer to his question.

* * *

Opening the door leading to the roof, Ranma felt the blast of cool night air the moment she was outside, and she continued on towards the edge. She had never been big into celebrating the Winter Solstice, mostly because it was usually just her and Genma. But Kasumi had grown up in a family who treated it as the biggest holiday of the year.

Personally, Ranma prefered the celebrations occurring around the Autumn Equinox. Harvests were coming in, the weather was usually a nice balance of hot and cold, and all the food would be fresh. She did see the appeal of the Winter Solstice, setting aside a day for family, decorating homes with the bright colors that usually vanished with snow. Green, gold, and red were favorites but anything bright and colorful was used as well. Many of these decorations took the shapes of leaved trees and red flowers.

Kasumi had spent the last several days creating her own decorations and even purchased some more ornate ornaments from vendors. Ranma had accompanied her former fiance on several trips into the city for the purpose of getting these ornaments, giving her a front row view to the city itself being transformed. The major streets had gained a mix of physical and magical decorations creating a splash of color against the white paint of the buildings and the snow.

While the sky was usually overcast and gray, tonight there was not a single cloud to hide the stars. Even the moon was hidden away, making the stars seem even brighter. The streets were empty save for the occasional guard patrolling, the population intent on spending time inside with their families, and not out in the cold.

Glancing backwards, Ranma watched Kasumi follow her through the exit up onto the roof before shutting the door behind her. "Ranma, is there a reason you asked me up here?" Kasumi asked curiously, clearly happy about how their meal with Favian had been enjoyable. Pepa had remained down with the elderly man so that he could study the spell creature.

"Of course." She trotted over to grab Kasumi's hand and pulled her towards the edge that faced away from the city. "It should be happening any minute now." Ranma assured, reluctantly releasing Kasumi's hand.

"What is?" The blonde questioned.

"Just wait." Ranma directed Kasumi to look upwards and stood close to the larger Tiefling.

"I agree the stars are beautiful but I'm not sure what's so—." Kasumi trailed off as the meteor shower started. Only a handful were visible to start before it looked like half the sky was taken up by the streaks of light. "How did you hear about this?" The blonde asked in wonder, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth.

"A few people in town the other day." She moved slightly closer to Kasumi. "I thought you might like it."

"It's amazing— and thank you." The blonde looked down at her, golden eyes shimmering with unrestrained joy.

"You're welcome." Her smile faltered, shifting her face to look away from Kasumi. Ranma had originally wanted to be with Kiima for this night but she hadn't been able to abandon the other Tiefling for the night after all the work she had put into making it a memorable one.

Kasumi seemed to pick up on her mood and tried to move so she could look into her eye. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know if I can do this much longer." She admitted, turning herself so that Kasumi wouldn't be able to see her face at all. "I don't know how much longer I can live here with you." Ranma added. All day she had been struggling to force herself to be happy for Kasumi. The meteor shower had been the time Ranma had decided would be best to break the news to Kasumi that she would be leaving.

"What do you mean?" The blonde asked in concern, purposely walking around so that she was standing in front of Ranma who kept her head down.

"Kasumi— I wanted— still want to be more than friends." Ranma briefly glanced up at the other Tieflings concerned face before looking down again. "I know that you don't and want to go on like nothing happened. But— anytime I'm around you— anytime you smile at me— I can feel my heart breaking just a little bit more." Thinking of Kasumi's earlier joy at seeing a meteor shower for the first time refreshed the pain and Ranma brought both hands up and held them over her heart.

"I'm so sorry, I had no idea." Kasumi answered her explanation in shock, covered her mouth once again with her hand.

"I didn't want you to know." Her wings slumped downwards and she finally looked back up at Kasumi, struggling with herself to finally finish. "I like Kiima— a lot— but it's not the same as how I feel about you. I wanted to tell you— that I'll be moving out sometime soon."

"Ranma— you can't." Kasumi suddenly grabbed her hands, Ranma blinked several times, and stared at the blonde in confusion. "Please— I don't know how but we can work through it. But you can't just leave me."

"Why can't I?" Ranma pulled her hands free of Kasumi and took several steps back. "What is it you want out of me? You're not my fiance anymore. Why do you want me hanging around you when you don't want anything to do with me?"

"That's not true and you know it." Kasumi stomped a foot angrily on the roof. "Ranma, don't you realize that you're my only friend? I'll be completely alone without you. Don't you realize how much it'll hurt me if you leave?"

Ranma stared at the blonde, stunned into inaction upon realizing that to leave Kasumi was to break everything with the woman she loved. It didn't matter that the other Tiefling was out of reach for the moment, Ranma had been willing to die for Kasumi, and nothing had changed that. Even if that wasn't the case, it had been her idea to come to this city, and she had accepted Kasumi coming along. It was her responsibility to make sure Kasumi returned home.

"Alright—." She nodded to the taller girl. "I'll stay— but if I have to get away every once and awhile, now you know the reason." She answered, trying to justify her resolution to herself. Agreeing to remain in the same home as Kasumi was inviting herself to feel that sharp pain in her chest every morning.

"I understand." Kasumi nodded sadly.

'I don't think you do, but I'll take it.' She gave as a strong a smile as she could towards the eldest Tendo daughter.

Standing in awkward silence, Ranma shuffled back and forth on her hooves attempting to ward off the chill since she lacked any enchanted clothing at the moment. Kasumi had no such difficulty, standing without any sign that she was troubled by the weather.

Kasumi was the first to finally break the silence. "So do you know what causes these sky showers?"

"No, how about you?" For the rest of the night she would have to sort through her feelings more but this was a welcome change of pace.

"No— but I heard that they are often a sign of something good about to happen."

"I heard that too— or great tragedy." She hoped that it was the former and not the latter.

A sharp crack with enough force that Ranma felt it shake her body made her and Kasumi jerk in shock. Looking around wildly for the source of the noise, smaller splintering and cracking quickly followed, and a more disturbing sensation washed over both of them. Ranma had felt the anti-infernal barriers presence for so long that she had grown used to the ever present feeling of it against her aura. But now it was gone, completely absent from her senses. Loud bangs finally allowed her to locate the source of the noise, it was the tower at the center of the city, and even from hundreds of meters away she could see the break positioned halfway up. With a quick groan, the tower snapped to one side, and began toppling down to the park below.

Dimly Ranma noticed that Favian had rushed up onto the roof just in time to watch the tower vanish into the trees that surrounded it. Even being as close to the outer wall as she was, Ranma could hear the trees being destroyed, and watched a huge cloud of smoke rise up from the impact.

"Master Favian what's happening?" Kasumi as the elderly man in complete shock. As strange silence falling over the city in the wake of the towers destruction.

"We're under attack." The man answered slowly and in the background some people were exiting home and asking each other what had happened.

"Mortals!" The familiar guttural voice of Raxus was magically carried over the city breaking the stillness. "The sky itself weeps for you! Long have you defied my Father's will but tonight you will know only the terror of his wrath! No quarter shall be given, no mercy shown, and by dawn only the dead and dying shall remain!" The giant Tiefling's cruel laughter echoed in her ears.

"What do we do?" Kasumi asked Favian in panic. From the streets, Ranma heard a scream of panic, and then shouting she couldn't make out.

"Steady yourself." The man said with confidence, still staring at the destroyed tower as more of it started to crumble away.. "We have at least an hour before they'll reach the outer wall. We must marshal our forces quickly, Ranma can you get the Phoenix mobilized then meet me at my home?"

"Yea." She nodded numbly as a strong jolt of fear rapidly traveling down her spine and tail. Raxus was here, he would be looking for her, and she would have to fight him again.

"Good, Kasumi stay with me." Favian snorted before stepping purposely towards the steps.

Kasumi shared a fearful look with her before hurrying to follow the elderly man. Once she was alone, Ranma let out a shaky breath. 'I can do this— it's just a fight— and I can handle it.' She tried to reassure herself but her arms wouldn't stop shivering.

* * *

Ranma didn't need to spend anytime warning the Phoenix to get ready, by the time she had arrived at their small part of the city, their remaining warriors were nearly done putting on their armor. Kiima was already wearing her navy blue and silver armor and was wielding the Gekkaja, a magical staff from her people that could freeze nearly anything. The white haired woman was working to move the kids to a more safer location underneath the park.

"Hopefully those landlings know not to fire arrows at anything in the sky." Kiima snorted. While the night was dark, in response to the barrier falling all the magical street lights had lit, making the surrounding area as bright as day.

"Hopefully." Ranma was still unsure on what her role in the city defense was. Favian wanted her near him but she would be far more useful helping the Phoenix keep their fallen brethren from raining arrows down on the defenders. Or even helping to thin the vast numbers of Ladon's army from the outer wall.

"Stay safe." Kiima suddenly turned to her, her mouth becoming a thin line.

"You too." Ranma nodded and on a whim gave her friend a quick hug before rushing off to meet with Favian once again.

On the way there, she rubbed at her ears, hearing a strange sort chanting that seemed to whisper to her from the wind. When she landed outside of Favian's home, she paused to try and locate the source. It sounded like a spell but Ladon's powerful infernal presence was making it hard to tell. She didn't find his aura repellent but noticing all the normal mortals around her, she could see that it was acting as an oppressive presence over the city.

"Hey Kasumi, are you hearing that?" She asked, digging at an ear with her pinky. Kasumi was standing to the side as Favian spoke with the captain of the guard. "That— whispering?" (2)

"You hear it too? I thought I was going crazy." The blonde waited impatiently along with her as Favian finished his conversation. "Master Favian, do you hear the whispering?"

The elderly man paused and tried to hear over the soldiers moving to head towards the outer wall. "I believe I do." The elderly man nodded and closed his eyes in concentration. "No." He breathed, his eyes opening wide. "With me, quickly." He didn't wait, rushing towards the captain of the guard was moving with two other soldiers. "Captain, you need to get as many as you can into the shelters— now."

"What are you talking about?" The man asked in confusion.

"Ladon is casting a siege spell— he's going to rain fire on us in moments." Favian explained gravely.

"You're sure?" The Captain asked and received a nod from the older man. Ranma furrowed her brow in frustration watching the Captain give quick orders to his subordinates to speed up the evacuation.

"Hey! What are we going to do?" Ranma demanded over the increasing whispering in her ear.

"Hope that the shelters are well built. If not we all die a buried underneath tons of stone." Favian explained in resignation, pointing a finger behind her.

Ranma traced the path of his finger to see the sky being torn open by a great red scar above the North West corner of the wall. Placing it in a direct line to Ladon's volcano. The tear grew wider until it was over a hundred meters across. Great gouts of flame erupted around the edge and the line started to grow in width at the center, opening like an eye.

"We're out of time, come on." Favian instructed insistently with Kasumi quickly following him along with Pepa clinging to her shoulder.

"But— isn't there something we can do?" Ranma asked, refusing to follow the man. Beyond the opening eye shape lay a chaotic swirling mass of fire. Narrowing her eyes, the whispered spell was growing strong enough that she was having trouble blocking it out.

"Don't be stupid!" Favian yelled at her and grabbed her shoulder roughly. "There is nothing that can be done.

"Why not? Isn't there a way to counter this kind of thing?" She brushed his hand away. If she just gave up and let this happen then thousands of people would be killed. More importantly she expected that the Phoenix were still moving their children towards the shelters.

"There is only one defense and that's to never let it be used!" He once again grabbed her, this time by the wing to try and pull her along. "Just do as I say damn it."

"There is something I can do." Easily breaking the hold on her, Ranma flew up several meters to get a better view of the city. She could see people lining the streets as they moved towards the park and the promise of safety underneath.

"Ranma! We don't have time for this, get back down here!" Favian yelled up to her.

Ranma only dimly heard him, the whispering was reaching a crescendo and with one final word it stopped. Looking towards the now fully open eye in the sky, fireballs several meters in diameter started to shoot from it towards the wall below. Ignoring Favian, Ranma's first instinct was to fly high up into the sky, and wait out the destruction. But she squashed that as best she could and flew towards the outer wall with as much speed as she could muster.

The high stone wall underneath the eye was demolished and the eye shifted towards the center of the city, the fireballs tracing a line of destruction below. Putting herself into a position between the eye and the majority of the city, Ranma took several rushed breaths, and spread her wings and feet in preparation for the spell she would attempt.

The only thing she could do would be a simple shield, the problem was that she would never be able to create one large enough under her own power. "Please work." Ranma begged, holding her hands up towards the eye, she faltered while trying to pull magic from the ley line. The anti-infernal barrier was no longer in place but the ambient magic was still saturated with it and moving it through her body had brought about quick and instant pain. "Why does saving people always have to hurt?" She asked before throwing herself completely into the spell. (3)

Far in front of her a red shield shimmered into existence. Spreading outwards in all directions, she cried out in pain as her body was being burned from the inside out. Pushing through the agony, her shield continued to grow until it enveloped enough of the sky to stop the destruction raining down on the city. Ranma jerked with every impact, feeling herself be steadily pushed back as Ladon's spell fought to overwhelm her. Several fireballs were able to get past at the edges and she dimly noticed them hitting the city below.

Ranma's head drooped, the strain quickly growing too much, and the requirements for her shield quickly using up the ambient magic. Beyond her shield she saw that the tear was closing and no more fireballs were emerging. Struggling to maintain the shield with her own strength, the last of the flaming rocks was intercepted by the shield just as she couldn't hold it anymore.

"Did it." She whispered, no longer able to even keep herself airborne, she stayed suspended briefly before falling down to the city below.

"I got you." Kiima grabbed her underneath the arms and slowed her descent.

Ranma wanted to make a remark about how she was alright and didn't need to be caught but she couldn't stop her limbs from trembling and felt like her bones were gone. Kiima flew her back over the city and Ranma saw that many of the small figures below were pointing up towards her and cheering. Deposited gently near the edge of the park, Ranma was unable to stay vertical and tried to collapse onto her knees but Kiima caught her again and slowly lowered her the rest of the way. Many of the Phoenix warriors were gathered and there was a large amount of normal citizens making their way to the shelters through an alternate route to ease the congestion. All of them talking to each other and looking at her with a mix of awe and fear.

"You damn fool." Favian charged up to her hauled her to her feet by the shoulders. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

"Saved those I care about." She answered with as serious of a tone as she could. Honestly she felt a bit goofy and really just wanted to lie down for a while.

"You exhausted the ley line, you just made every spellcaster useless for hours possibly days!" He briefly shook her shoulders before releasing her. Ranma couldn't keep her balance so she fell down onto her backside. Kasumi was nearby in an instant, inspecting her for injury.

"Are you alright?" Kasumi ignored Favian and all but demanded that Ranma answer her question.

"I'm fine." She sank into herself briefly before rationalizing that the action had been worth the price. The ones she cared about along with hundreds of others had been saved and only a small portion of the city was ablaze.

"Please don't do that again." Kasumi begged, clasping Ranma's hands.

Ranma blinked and focused on the other Tiefling. "No promises." She smiled as confidently as she could. It had always been in her nature to protect others and that was something she never wanted to change.

"What are you all standing around for?" Favian snapped at the Phoenix, breaking up the pleasant moment between her and Kasumi. "Am I the only one who can see that your kin are approaching across the plain?" Ranma didn't try to twist her head around to look, expecting that Ladon's spells true purpose was to open a way into the city for his army, and now the undead Phoenix would be swarming around the entrance to rain arrows down on the defenders.

"Right." Kiima nodded with as much respect as she ever gave those without wings. "Everyone— to the wall." She commanded and as soon as they had taken off, knelt down to take a place opposite Kasumi. Ranma could feel the sudden jealous tension emanating from Kiima.

"You were amazing." Kiima gave her a hug around the shoulders. Ranma could feel the dynamic around her shift with Kasumi suddenly becoming jealous.

"Thanks." Ranma blushed, noticing more and more that many of the civilians moving towards the shelter were stopping to gossip about their behavior.

"I need to go help my people." Kiima released her to back away and stand up.

"I'll be there in a minute." She told the white haired girl, not wanting to leave her friend to a fight, even if she wanted nothing to do with it. "Just need to rest for a second."

"I'll be waiting." Kiima nodded appreciatively before flying off to join the rest of the Phoenix.

"Come on." Favian demanded irritably, grabbing her by the upper arm to haul her up to her hooves. "I need to go find out who destroyed the barrier."

"Well I have to go help Kiima." She pulled her arm from his grasp with ease.

"No you don't." He snapped. "This is a war and people will die— never forget that victory is more important than any single life."

"Then why aren't you lining up to be burned alive?" She glared into his orange eyes.

"Don't be naive, you've told me yourself that there have been times where you put one life above another. Not every life is equal."

"And I wish I hadn't." She admitted to herself as well. There had been times where she had chose to save one person over another. Either because she was physically unable to do it or because she had been unwilling to put her life on the line for someone else. "I can save them now! This is the one good thing that's come from this curse, I can't not use it!"

"You— stupid sentimental little girl." He responded slowly, looking at her with disgust. "Grow up and face reality, you don't have the luxury of being so foolish."

"Little girl?" Ranma simmered with a cold fury. "I can save the ones I care about. That's all that matters to me!"

"Then go." Favian waved a hand dismissively. "Play the hero until Ladon binds you, then you'll get to be the one killing the ones you care about."

"I guess all that talk— about how much confidence you had in me— was just talk." Ranma snorted in disgust, shoulders shaking with rage. "I'll be back Kasumi— that's a promise." She tried to make eye contact with the blonde, but Kasumi was too busy looking between them in horror. "Kasumi." Ranma said forcefully to finally get the other Tieflings attention. "Please stay close to him, I'm sure Favian is going to stay as far from harm as he can get."

* * *

Kasumi wished that Ranma hadn't been flown off so impulsively, leaving her alone with Favian. She had complete confidence that he could keep her safe and she agreed with him that they should stick together. Ranma was taking an unnecessary risk as far as she was concerned. Hopefully her fear was unfounded and the cursed teen could handle anything that came up. For now, she stayed close to Favian as he moved through the underground tunnels towards the source of the barrier.

"If we're all very lucky, I'll patch things up with Ranma at the end of this." Favian explained, the orange eyed man reassuring himself once again. "She was right, I will keep you safe." He nodded to her. "You have my word."

"Thank you." She returned his nod, wishing that Pepa hadn't flown off to watch over Ranma.

"Have you been keeping up your studies?" He asked conversationally.

"Yes but I'm no good at offensive spells." She admitted fearfully, knowing that if she was useless in a combat situation. "And my defensive ones aren't very reliable."

"That's alright. If anything happens just concentrate on protecting yourself."

"Alright." She answered without much conviction, noticing finally that she was losing pace with the Mortal man. Steeling herself, she focused on pushing through the greater concentration of anti-Infernal magic in the area. "Why can I still feel the barrier?"

"You're probably feeling the source of it. It's an artifact shaped like a golden ring. It has tremendous power and you must never touch it."

Kasumi nodded enthusiastically after only briefly imagining what such an artifact could do to her. "Who do you think did it?" She asked.

"I am not sure." He answered, pausing to inspect the last gate before a large chamber. "All of this should be sealed off, if anything happens to the two guards that were supposed to be here, the ceiling was supposed to release, bringing it down on the attackers head. A barbaric method but an excellent deterrent."

Following him through the gateway, she entered into a large cylindrical chamber with a small pedestal sitting in the center. The walls were a painfully bright shade of white except for the bright red blood splashed against it. Kasumi gasped, covering her mouth with her hand, and refusing to follow Favian. Twelve guards lay where they had been slain, some against the walls, others in the center of the floor. All had met a violent end at the end of a blade. Moving her hand up to cover her nose, she gagged from the sharply metallic scent of blood permeating the room.

"Dorik." The elderly man noted, not waiting for her as he knelt down next to one of the bodies. "Why was he here?"

"Dying I'm afraid." A woman's voice answered, all the light around them suddenly dimming to cast the room in dark shadows. Kasumi hurriedly moved over to stand next to the perceived protection of Favian's side.

"Leye." Favian stood still.

"It's what Mortals are good at, after all." Another similar sounding woman added.

"And Reye."

"You remember us." Reye giggled from the darkness.

"But you wasted your time coming here." Leye said from a spot that seemed very close before suddenly moving away. "There's no way you can rebuild it on your own."

"And yet you two remain here." Favian's orange eyes were constantly moving, scanning the room for the hidden threat.

"We knew you would come and wanted to see if you would bring her." Leye's voice was suddenly right next to Kasumi and it was all the warning she received before a pair of strong arms pulled her away into darkness.

"Help!" She called out, her vision returning, this time from across the room.

"No need to worry." Leye rubbed her partially scaled face against Kasumi's cheek. "We don't want to hurt you. We never have." Kasumi struggled to break free from the other Tiefling's arms but stopped when they suddenly tightened and she felt the sword in Leye's hand brush against her side.

"Leave her out of this." Favian demanded, remaining in his position.

"How could we?" Reye suddenly appeared next to Kasumi and brought up a gloved hand to hold her chin between two fingers. Kasumi stared into the faintly glowing red eyes fearfully. Reye leaned forward and breathed in deeply through her nose.

"I said leave her out of this!" Favian shouted, taking several steps forward.

"You know don't you?" Leye tightened her grip around Kasumi again. "Even trapped in that pathetic Mortal form you could sense it."

"Trapped?" Kasumi asked in confusion.

"Uncle has always been fond of keeping secrets." Reye backed away from Kasumi to focus on Favian.

"But we don't like to keep secrets." Leye slowly allowed Kasumi more movement. "Not from family at least."

"Like I'd ever believe something like that." She looked to Favian, pleading with her eyes for him to actually help her.

"We have no reason to harm you, see." Leye released her to tumble down to her knees.

"It's only the Mortals that have to fear us, cousin." Reye added a half beat later, sounding almost sincere.

"How disrespectful, acting like you have won." Favian spat, a bright white glow springing to life around him. "**Vai anima zako nen'jige bizo**." Favian's voice echoed and reverberated around the hall, the lights that had dimmed exploded in intensity to become literally blinding. Kasumi screamed along with the twins in pain, closing her eyes in a futile attempt to keep the light out. She covered her eyes but it did nothing to stop the light from searing her vision. (5)

"How dare you underestimate me." The elderly man announced contemptuously. "I was the one who taught you to slink about in the darkness. Safe from your brother." His soft footsteps carried over Reye and Leye's cries of pain. "It was by my hand that you survived to become strong. Did you think I would not expect treachery? That I would give you power without knowing how to counter it?"

Kasumi slowly tried to open her eyes, the intensity of the light diminishing enough to no longer cause pain. She saw the two other Tieflings kneeling on the ground before Favian, chains rising from the floor to bind their hands, feet, and neck. Kasumi was finally able to get a clear view at the two women, they were identical twins except for the patchwork of red scales that covered their bodies. They looked to be in their late twenties with slender and anemic frames. Long thin tails curled and lashed behind them and they had matching downward facing half circle horns sprouting from behind their ears. One of their most striking features was the dark green hair cropped short against their skulls.

"I expected so much more from both of you." Favian whispered in disappointment, kneeling down next to the two women. "But you wasted your talents. Wasted your lives following my brother's insanity."

"Uncle— please forgive us." Reye pleaded.

"Father— it was father who sent us after you." Leye added.

"Don't beg, I'm not going to hurt you." He gently put a hand on the top of their heads. "I forgive you— just as I hope you'll forgive me." His hands glowed a bright gold and it rapidly enveloped them. As soon as it passed, they both tried to speak, their eyes begging, and pleading but no sound left their mouths. "Because I cannot allow you to speak again."

"What did you do to them?" She asked fearfully, worrying that she would be next.

"I took away one of their most potent weapons." He answered, rising back to his feet in front of the two women struggling against their chains. "I cannot allow them to speak again because I know they would share my secret to save themselves."

"And me?" She edged away from him as the elderly man approached her position.

"I can't think of anyone else I would want to know." He held out a hand to help her up.

"Who are you— really?" She asked, taking his hand in order to rise to her feet.

"Favian." He answered simply. "The same being that you have always known. But a long time ago— in another life— I was a dragon and Ladon was my brother."

Taking her hand from his gentle grip, she backed away from him, seized by shock and fear. "You're a dragon?" She gasped.

"Was—." He looked away sadly towards the twins who still tried to voice protest at their situation. "I'm a mortal now— human— with everything that comes along with it."

She took several more steps away from the man she had thought she knew. "Cousin— were they right? Am I related to them?"

"You are—." Favian paused to collect his thoughts. "When I was a dragon, I did— horrible things, and one of many countless was to your ancestor. You are my many times great granddaughter."

"How can I trust anything you say?" Her golden eyes narrowed into tiny slits, anger replacing shock. "You've been lying to me since the moment we met!" Kasumi's eyes widened at a sudden realization. "Why did they know you would come here? Did you plan to meet them here?"

"No— a thousand times no." He answered her accusation quickly. "My only goal is to keep you both safe, to stop him, and his cruelty from destroying anymore lives." He pleaded, suddenly looking like a frail old man.

"I think I believe you." She gulped, hoping that her intuition was correct about the man before her. "But I'm going to want a better explanation."

"And you'll get it." He nodded. "Unfortunately there are more important events that we must to attend to first."

"But what about them?" Kasumi glanced to the twins, who had given up trying to verbally protest their situation. They had seemed to terrifying before, but seeing them outside of the shadows, they looked small and scared.

"It's not up to me to decide, but they won't be causing any more trouble."

* * *

'This is hopeless.' Kiima fell back to avoid a sword slash by the dead body of a Phoenix man and retaliated by lashing out with the Gekkaja to slice off his arm. She had found out quickly that the enchanted blade immediately destroyed the undead spell when enough damage was done to the body. Unfortunately there were only a handful of enchanted weapons amongst the few remaining Phoenix.

Seeing that a group of her forces were about to face a volley of arrows from a large group of undead Phoenix, she pushed herself to get between the two groups. Activating the Gekkaja's freezing power, she swung it in a wide arc creating a protective wall of ice. It hung in the air long enough to stop the arrows but quickly fell without any support, revealing that the line of thirty archers was about to fire again.

"Captain!" She heard Masara call to her but she didn't acknowledge him, preparing to use the Gekkaja once again.

Fire filled her vision, washing over the archers like a giant wave, and leaving only ash in its wake. Ranma passed through the decimated line to impale an archer who had avoided the blast with her magic sword. The undead Phoenix briefly spasmed as the spell was broken before falling.

"Don't get bunched up." She ordered and went to meet up with the Tiefling. "Ranma are you alright?" She took a moment to ask, cutting through another attacker, and noticing a pained expression etched on the red head's face.

"I'm fine." Ranma snapped tiredly, throwing her left hand forward to send a spear of fire to incinerate a charging undead Phoenix. "Just angry." Spinning backwards, the red head threw her magic sword to cleave through the head of an archer about to let loose an arrow at Kiima's back. Ranma opened up her hand and the sword leapt back to it.

'Why don't they make more of those?' She wondered before being forced to defend herself.

* * *

Unable to stomach watching the fighting, Pepa sought out a much more quiet place to wait for it to end. Passing over the refugees as they entered into the shelter beneath the park area, she found a nice out of the way spot to wait out the battle. All of this fighting was something for big people, not a tiny fairy like herself. She couldn't possibly keep either Kasumi or Ranma safe. She knew for some reason that Favian would keep Kasumi from harm and Ranma always seemed to take care of herself.

Curling up into a tiny faintly glowing ball, she didn't like feeling so useless.

* * *

Stabbing through the chest of another undead Phoenix, Ranma watched the magical glow fade from the corpses eyes before it dropped towards the city. She was overwhelmingly furious with Favian and the mass of clumsy poorly coordinated undead was the perfect target for her anger. Unfortunately Ladon's presence over the island was muting her righteous anger to bring forth another wholly unwanted emotion, fear.

The Dragon's army was without end, hundreds of undead Phoenix swarmed around her, and his ground army had yet to reach the breached wall. While the living Phoenix were doing a very good job of stopping their fallen, soon enough they would tire, and be forced to retreat or die. Pausing after incinerating at least a dozen of the undead, she tried to compose herself. Her heart was thundering in her chest and she was starting to hesitate with every strike, fighting against the increasingly large part of her that wanted to flee.

She couldn't fight against Ladon, what could she do against a being who could do all this? The ley line, his primary target had been completely exhausted just to stop one of his spells. A spell that had been cast while he was actively supporting his undead army. Any sane being would be terrified to even stand before the Dragon.

Avoiding a clumsy attempt to spear her, she spun in mid-air, and cut the corpse in two. As with all of the animated bodies, when she touched with her sword, their connection to the magic reanimating them was severed. Even over the feeling of malice Ladon's presence exuded, she felt an even more intense feeling of hatred from an all too familiar source. Hastily bringing up a barrier, an intense heat washed over her. A weak fireball crashed over her position, briefly engulfing her body before vanishing. Letting the barrier drop, she coughed and rubbed at her eyes, having been too late to fully block the attack.

Raxus' deep chuckles at her discomfort made her body freeze. "You won't escape this time." The Dragon Tiefling sneered, slowly flying towards her, a victorious smirk on his mutilated reptilian face.

Ranma's eyes widened, feeling her wing explode in fresh pain where he had stabbed her, remembering how easily he had struck her down. Blind panic seized her and Ranma tucked her wings in to fly straight down. She could hear the giant behind her, laughing as he easily kept pace. Swerving upwards at the last second, she skimmed along the rooftops and glanced backwards to see that Raxus was preparing to launch another fireball at her.

Attempting to rapidly dodge, she struck a chimney with her shoulder. The brick shattered and the distraction sent her tumbling across a rooftop and over the edge. Falling three stories, she hit the stone lined alleyway on her back, and laid halfway buried in the snow.

Breathing heavily, she stared up at the dark sky, feeling surprisingly calm over her accident. A large dark figure stepped over the ledge above her and glided down on great wings to land nearby. 'Why him? Why is it always him? Someone— please help' She prayed to any being that may listen, hearing Raxus' heavy plate boots crunch against the snow as he deliberately took his time moving towards her.

"Your reaction— the smell of your fear— it's exquisite." He laughed cruelly to himself.

Ranma rolled over to lift her head and watch the man approach, her horror increasing with each step. Time seemed to slow as she became hyper focused on the monster approaching until he seemed to freeze in place. When Raxus didn't continue moving, she blinked several times, confused over what was happening.

"Poor child." An elegant woman's voice cut through the night air and Ranma felt a powerful presence appear next to her. "This world is always so harsh to your kind."

"Who?" She turned towards the voice and only briefly saw a pair of warm emerald eyes framed by long thick eyelashes before two hands gently pulled her head in to lean against the woman's chest. Ranma tried to pull away until she began to feel the woman's protective aura wrap around and envelope her. Latching onto that feeling, she relaxed against the newcomer, hearing the steady beat of the woman's heart over the wild pounding of her own. "Who are you?"

"Your heart shudders to pieces from a Succubaes curse. In this place it will lead to your doom."

Ranma allowed herself to fall further into the comforting presence, the woman gently rocking her. "I can't fight him." She admitted, trusting this strange woman for some unknown reason. Raxus was the superior warrior and it was only that Ladon wanted her alive that kept her from death. "I'm not strong enough."

"Strength takes many forms and you're so much stronger than you realize." The woman assured her. "It is within my power to take away the fear that grips you. But I can only offer this for one day and only if you agree to my request."

"Which is?" She stayed in her position, afraid to offend her benefactor by breaking her embrace, and preferring this reality to the cold and battle she was trapped in.

"That the next time we meet, you must call me grandmother."

"Huh?" She suddenly found herself back in the alleyway, feeling the brisk winter wind immediately hitting her face, the world no longer frozen in time. Blinking repeatedly, she looked around in confusion, wondering if she had been hallucinating.

The heavy clanking of Raxus' armor drew her attention back to reality. "Come— amuse me." His muzzle split into a large grin, showing off his pointed teeth.

Ranma looked at the giant Tiefling, feeling a familiar nervous excitement at the prospect of fighting the man. The overwhelming and unnatural fear he had inspired before was lifted, shoved to the back of her mind. 'I agree.' She stood up and brushed snow off her clothing. One day without being at war with herself over whether to fight or flee was worth such a small price.

Her sword had been lost in her tumble off of the roof but recalled to her hands at her mental call. Affixing the sheath to her hip, she drew the weapon, and pointed it at Raxus. "This time— you die." She spat, the spectral blade glowing brightly in the dark alley.

Raxus merely laughed dismissively at her proclamation. "I'll enjoy myself before bringing you to father. He won't be too angry with me for having some fun."

* * *

Twirling the Gekkaja, Kiima cut through several of her former people, and looked around for Ranma worriedly. She had seen Raxus arrive and Ranma had fled far too fast for her to follow. Seeing that the tide was steadily turning from their favor, she sliced through another fallen Phoenix, and tried to come up with a way to take control of this fight. Fighting individually wasn't going to work, soon they would be too tired to continue. They needed someone like Ranma for her large spells to thin the numbers.

Towards the middle of the city, she watched a pillar of fire rise up nearly a hundred meters in the air. Two figures flew upwards, circling the spell, and sending smaller attacks back and forth. Kiima couldn't stop herself from watching Ranma battle Raxus, neither appeared able to overwhelm the other with raw magical power.

"Koruma, Masara!" She called out to her two lieutenants. "We need to retreat. Fall back to support the Landlings defensive line." She commanded swinging her staff to cut down an undead Phoenix attempting to spear her from behind. The two men nodded the affirmative. "I'm need to go ensure that Raxus does not slither away again."

"We'll go with you!" Masara suggested.

"No, you'll both get in the way." She explained sadly, her constant training with Ranma had honed her skills far beyond the other Phoenix. "Stay safe." She nodded to them before rushing off to go to Ranma's aide.

* * *

Ranma deflected Raxus' large blade with her own, the impact throwing her arms to the side. Recovering, she stepped forward to slash at his exposed arm. Raxus twisted his sword around to easily block her blade. Keeping their swords locked against each other, she struggled to keep him from overpowering her. The giant leaned forward, his remaining muzzle twisted into a triumphant sneer.

"Weak little girl." He took a step forward, easily pushing her back. "Is this the best you can do?" Raxus forced her backwards once again. "You surprised me twice— clearly it was just luck!" He shouted.

Jumping back several meters, Raxus followed to bring his sword down on her. Ranma slipped on the icy street and fell on her backside. Her eyes widened in alarm and she curled her legs and wings in as tightly as she could to her body. Planting her hands on the stone, it liquified at her touch and shot out to turn into dozens of spikes all pointing towards the other Tiefling.

Raxus was able to stop his momentum a moment too late, several of the stone spikes bypassing his armor at the joints. The Dragon Tiefling stood for a brief second grimacing in pain before with a deep growl he pulled backwards and freed himself. A small amount of blood started to trail down his armor but his thick scales had saved him from severe injury.

Leaning forward as best she could, she made the stone spikes speed towards Raxus. The giant snorted and shoved his blade towards her. Her attack was destroyed by a powerful concussive force that continued through her. Thrown backwards through her own stone creation, she rolled twice before hopping up to her hooves.

Finding Raxus again, her eyes widened in alarm as he swung his sword, blocking with her own sword, she was knocked back, and into the air. Catching herself before she hit the ground, Ranma spun, and flew upwards to put some distance between them. 'Alright, I can't match him for strength and he can block my spells. But I am smaller and quicker than he is.' Spinning back around, she hovered in mid-air, looking down at the giant Tiefling who had yet to move.

Putting her sword away, she realized that from this position there was nothing behind Raxus. He was standing in the middle of a wide street. The evacuation should be nearly completely so she didn't have to worry about bystanders getting in the way. Not that anyone would have gotten near the other Tiefling while they were fighting.

"I'll give you a shot." Raxus called up to her. "Make it count because I am done playing with such a weak creature."

'Here it comes you bastard.' Her face twisted into a scowl and she brought both hands up above her head. Ranma felt her magic leap to answer her call. Since the barrier had gone down she had felt and seen the noticeable difference. Her infernal aura was no longer being repressed and it was far more potent than her mortal half. Above her hands, a small ball of fire formed, then rapidly expanded to be twice as large as her head.

As much as she wanted to pour every ounce of herself into this attack, she didn't know how much the infernal magic would add to the blast. Projecting this kind of spell away from her body would be taxing enough, she couldn't be worrying about leveling the city. Raxus didn't seem the least bit concerned with her attack, going so far as to holster his sword against his back.

"See how you like this!" She shouted and threw her hands forward. A cone of fire erupted from her hands, bathing the street, and Raxus in a molten blaze. Continuing to pour more of her reserves into the costly spell, she gave one last surge of power to increase the intensity to the point where the flames turned white before finally relenting, and allowing herself to slowly drop to the ground below.

"Shouldn't have underestimated me." She remarked and took several good breaths, watching the street and nearby buildings burn. Honestly she felt like this end to the giant was anti-climactic. A single attack she could have done at the start? Why had she been so afraid of the other Tiefling if this was all it took?

Ranma was just looking up to find where Kiima and the other Phoenix were fighting their dead brethren when she felt a rapid magical build up from the center of the inferno. "It can't be." She took a step back and shakily put her hand on her sword hilt as waves of infernal energy radiated outwards. The magical fire that had been slowly dying down suddenly increased in intensity, rising up even higher to reach two stories. Feeling the start of a spell, she created a barrier around herself just in time to avoid being burnt alive. The fire swirled and grew in the span in an instant, reaching high up into the sky in the shape of a tornado swirling around a fixed point.

The tornado of fire swirled for several minutes before it petered out without any extra flash. Raxus stood, his armor glowing slightly from the heat, but the most important thing on Ranma's mind that he was completely unharmed.

"No." She whispered, allowing her barrier to drop. That had been her best attack spell. Only one other spell was stronger but she could barely perform it at the best of times. Everything around Raxus was destroyed, even the stone beneath his feet had been melted from the heat. She knew that he hadn't put up a defense, so how could he still be alive?

"I was born in fire and you gift me with it's presence. I don't know why father wants such an incompetent slave." Raxus slowly started to walk over the ruined street towards her. (6)

Shakily, Ranma drew her sword, while she was no longer crushed by the irrational fear due to her heritage. She was now struggling with the knowledge that she couldn't beat Raxus. There was no where she could run and what could normal mortals do against this monster? The giant suddenly rushed her and she was unprepared to defend herself. He drove his gauntleted fist deep into her lower stomach. The heat from his armor burning her skin through her clothing and while she wanted to cry out in pain, all she could do was open her mouth in a mute scream.

Doubling over in pain and clutching her stomach, she noticed too late his armored knee rising up to meet her chin. Ranma's head jerked backwards and she hung for a moment, teetering on her hooves, before dropping lifelessly back on to the warm stone street. Her vision swam, her teeth felt like they had just been shattered, breathing was difficult, and she found it impossible to focus. Ranma tried unsuccessfully to roll over on her stomach, struggling in another attempt, she had to stop as stars danced before her eyes.

"Father won't care if you don't have your wings." Raxus said, his voice sounding like it was coming from the far end of a tunnel. Ranma didn't have to try to turn over because the giant kicked her in the side, making her roll repeatedly before coming to a rest on her stomach. She dimly noticed that Raxus had grabbed her left wing and was pulling her up off the ground by it. Her head cleared enough for her to realize what he was about to do but she felt helpless to stop her mutilation. "Too long have I waited to repay your desecration of my face."

Sparks showered over Ranma's body as Kiima dropped directly between them, attempting to impale Raxus with her staff, but the blade bounced off his armor. "I'll not stand by as you kill anyone else!" Kiima's voice shouted and twisted the staff around to stab at him.

Raxus snarled at the white haired female but avoided the blade and releasing Ranma's wing from his grasp. "I am tired of you and your pathetic fucking race getting into my business!" He roared. "I will see to it personally that every last one of you suffers before your end. Your rotting corpses left atop the ruins of this city!" He declared hatefully.

"Boldly stated monster." Kiima stood protectively between Ranma and Raxus, staff held towards the giant Tiefling.

"Kiima." Ranma fumbled to try and pull herself up. "Run— get out of here." She pleaded weakly, unwilling to watch her friend be slaughtered in front of her.

Kiima ignored her, rushing recklessly at Raxus. The Phoenix's staff clashed against the giant's blade, Raxus' superior strength brushing aside Kiima's strikes. With a single blow, the Gekkaja was knocked from Kiima's hands to clatter across the street, leaving her standing before Raxus in a moment of panic. Raxus' large blade cleaved through the air and would have cut the Phoenix in two if she hadn't fallen backwards, scrambling across the street to retrieve her staff.

Ranma struggled to recall her sword, the blade appearing in her hand only as her head cleared enough to think more clearly. She could do nothing to help Kiima as Raxus swung his sword downwards. Kiima grabbed her staff at the last moment, planting the base on the street, and pointing the crescent shaped blade upwards to block the attack. There was a loud clang as the base of the staff was pushed deeply into the street, the bladed end cutting into Raxus' enchanted sword. Kiima jerked from the impact and rose to her feet attempting to free her weapon from the ground.

"Die." Raxus commanded, his sword coming free of the Gekkaja with a jerk, and swung the massive weapon across his body. Kiima was frozen in position as the sword struck her in the side. The Gekkaja was bent nearly in half as Raxus completed his swing through it, from the resulting backlash it popped up into the air spinning. Kiima's armor absorbed most of the blow but it did not save her from being thrown to the side. The Phoenix girl landed face down on the street and did not move, the Gekkaja being caught by Raxus before it could hit the ground.

Ranma slumped into herself, unable to even cry out in pain at seeing her friend be murdered in front of her eyes. "No." She whispered, tears starting to fall from her eyes, painfully getting to her feet.

"I will enjoy this moment." Raxus purred, turning his grip around on the Gekkaja to have the blade facing down. "Not as much as if I made you watch your people suffer and die. But it will have to do." Raising the staff high the giant laughed gleefully to himself.

"No!" She flew forward low over the street, Raxus paused at her shout, turning too slowly towards her. Ranma's sword flashed out, catching the unprotected back of the giant's knee as she passed underneath him to come to a stop over top of Kiima's body. Raxus howled in pain, collapsing from the severed ligaments and tendons. Reversing the grip on her sword, Ranma plunged it backwards, the blade finding room past Raxus' armor to cut deeply into his groin.

The Dragon Tiefling stared down, blood already flowing freely down Ranma's blade to drip from the hilt. Raxus collapsed down onto his other knee and brought his hands down as if to grab her sword. Pulling her blade free, she slowly turned to face the evil monster. His blood pooled around him, every heartbeat pumping ever more out onto the street.

"Not like this." The giant choked out. "I'll not end like this— not to you." He snarled with disgust.

Ranma faltered, her head once again swimming, but she remained on her feet. "It'll have to do." She spat and swung her sword one last time. Raxus' head tumbled to the street, his body collapsing backwards. She stared down at the still hatefully glaring head, the victory feeling worse than defeat. Dropping her sword, she quickly knelt next to Kiima.

"Kiima?" She asked, hesitantly touching the Phoenix girls shoulder. Ranma gulped, seeing that Kiima's left arm was broken above the elbow, and was bent the wrong direction. Checking to see if the white haired girl had a pulse, she found a very weak one. "Don't worry, you'll be alright." She tried to sound reassuring, gathering Kiima into her arms as gently as she could. Finally getting a look at Kiima's face, she saw a small amount of blood trickling freely out of her mouth. "Please be alright." She begged.

Before she could take off to find a doctor, the ground shook violently, and a great roar echoed through the city. Ranma looked out over the wall to see Ladon's volcano erupt, spewing lava and ash high up into the sky. High above her, she watched the remaining undead Phoenix retreat, pulling back from the city. "Cry all you want you bastard." She watched the display for only a moment before returning to the more important task of getting Kiima help.

* * *

Author Notes

1 - Barrier vs Shield - A barrier is a spherical spell that reflects all magical and physical attacks no matter the direction. It does not affect non-living matter when initially created. So any walls or floors become the edge of it's protective zone. This creates weak points that can be exploited. Another weakness is it's overall strength because it is spread over a large area. The last weakness is that it cannot be moved. If the caster needs to move then they need to drop the barrier and create a new one.

A shield is similar to a barrier in function but the main difference is that it creates a partial sphere. This focuses the strength into one area making it much stronger than a barrier. Shields are usually used to specifically combat a type of spell, increasing it's effectiveness. This does bring with it the drawback of not stopping other spells and can only block from one direction. Unlike barriers they can be moved.

2- Kasumi describing Kiima as "swishing her hips" is a reference to a movie made in my hometown named Anatomy of a Murder. Which I highly recommend.

3 - Being part infernal both Ranma and Kasumi can pick up on the spell before mortals. Kasumi actually noticed it before and much more strongly because it was being cast in the language of dragons.

4 - Shields and barriers can be quite costly to use over large areas. The power requirements for them grow at an exponential rate.

5 - "Drive away with light" would be the translation from Draconic which is butchered Ojibwe. The twins use a spell that always keeps them partially melded with shadows, allowing them to move between any connected shadow. Favian's counter to that is to literally remove all shadows.

6 - Red Dragons are naturally immune to fire and heat in general. Their body temperatures are static, regardless of the outside conditions. Many Tieflings like Kasumi receive a level of protection from all elements and in some cases of recent Demon parents the full immunity is transferred.

World Info

The two Equinoxes and Solstices form the framework for the major holidays. While there are a variety of celebrations occurring around the year for many reasons, the largest and highest concentration happen from the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. While not considered more important than other seasons, it is thought of as a time of plenty and a rest period before the new year begins. Spring and Summer have their share of holidays and festivals but there is less free time leading to smaller and shorter celebrations.


	13. Loss Part Two

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

* * *

One Hour Later

"Are you sure you don't want me to look at your wounds?" Doctor Nuara asked her. He was the same doctor who had healed her upon her arrival at Lutansk and he was just as grating on her nerves now as he was then.

Ranma shook her head slowly, the earlier blow to her head still made her dizzy, and she could feel a constant pain from the burn to her stomach.

"Tieflings." The man rolled his eyes but didn't press the issue, leaving to go assist other patients she could hear through the fabric dividing wall.

Kneeling next to Kiima who was laying on a mat and covered with a blanket, Ranma watched the doctor leave. The small room was created by curtains in a large open building serving as a temporary hospital near the destroyed portion of the outer wall. Kiima had been stripped of her armor to allow the doctor to tend to her wounds and redressed in a simple white dress.

Clutching at her stomach with her right arm as soon as he was out of sight, Ranma cursed her foolish pride. Healing the minor burn would have gotten rid of her most annoying injury. But it all seemed so minor when she thought of Kiima's injuries. The Phoenix girl's left arm had been amputated, leaving her with just a stump below her shoulder. While Kiima's armor had protected her from the swords cutting edge, the impact had crushed her arm flat against her chest piece. The shock of the blow had been so great that she had suffered internal injuries that would have been fatal if left untreated.

Her brow furrowed and she squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm so sorry." She whispered, feeling tears force their way down her cheeks. Bowing her head forward as another wave of dizziness hit her, Ranma's shoulder shook. Favian had told her that she was not ready to face Raxus but she had foolishly ignored his warning. And now Kiima would be crippled for the rest of her life all because she had let her ego get in the way.

How could she make up for the loss Kiima had suffered because of her? Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, she turned slowly to look at the suit of armor haphazardly discarded on the floor nearby. Ladon was the architect of all the misery inflicted on all the Phoenix, on Kiima, on Riisu, and all the other lives he had destroyed.

'I have to kill Ladon.' She decided, her resolve was tempered by the strict time limit forcing her to confront him within a day. Leaving her with no further time to prepare or master the spell Favian had taught her. Picking at the flimsy fabric of her tunic, she knew that she needed more protection than clothing barely able to keep out the cold. Rising to peak outside the cloth divider, she turned her head side to side looking for anyone who might interrupt her. Satisfied that she would have privacy, she closed the curtain and started to undress.

"Kiima, do you mind if I borrow your armor?" She whispered to the unconscious Phoenix. "I'm going to need any advantage I can get."

Receiving no answer from the comatose female, she started to put on the armor set. The chainmail base layer went on over top of her underthings and was cool to the touch, causing goose bumps to rise up over her skin. Having forgotten about an important aspect, she quickly removed the chainmail, and used her sword to cut a small hole for her tail.

"Sorry, I'll get you a new one ." She apologized, tail shivering briefly from the cool metal while her wings fit through the same holes Kiima required in the upper back.

Two layers of thin enchanted leather colored navy blue with golden designs on the edges went over top of that followed by plate gauntlets, greaves, and a chest plate. Removing the boots attached to the greaves, she slipped her hooves through the shin guards. Overall the fit wasn't right, the chainmail was too loose, and the breastplate was only wearable because Kiima was physically larger. Tightening the belt around her waist, she then checked to make sure the gauntlets wouldn't be slipping off. Finally she affixed her swords empty scabbard to her hip, remembering that she had left the blade next to Raxus.

Ranma didn't look back at Kiima's sleeping form as she left, trying to push everything else to the side, and focus on the Dragon she must slay alone. A task that was so absurd that she still couldn't imagine the entire scope of it. No one got in her way as she exited the temporary hospital and finding that her sword would not respond to her mental call to return, she was about to return to Raxus' corpse to retrieve her weapon when two Phoenix landed in front of her.

"Why are you wearing Captain Kiima's armor?" Masara demanded angrily.

"Where is she?" Koruma added.

"Kiima's inside." Ranma answered. "Please protect her while I'm away." She didn't want to speak anymore with either of them, leaving them standing in the street, and moving too fast for either to follow. Most of the Phoenix had been tolerant or supportive of her presence amongst them especially after spending time around her. But several were hostile to a half breed spending so much time with their de facto leader and having any contact with their remaining children.

As Ranma flew over the city, she noticed that the fighting had all but stopped. She could see Ladon's forces gathering outside the destroyed wall but making no move to approach. Pausing to look out over the vast plain surrounding the city, she wondered what they were waiting for. They easily outnumbered the small force defending the city and should have been able to simply overrun them. Was it Raxus' death that had changed things? He was so powerful that she could easily imagine him laying waste to the cities army on his own.

Her eyes widened, realizing that even as endless as Ladon's army seemed to be, funneled through such a narrow gap in the wall they were useless. The ley line was slowly but surely refilling the area with the ambient magic she had used up earlier. On their own the Mortal mages could destroy Ladon's army and without Raxus helping the undead Phoenix to disrupt them there was no way for the attack to succeed.

Smiling in a brief moment of satisfaction she dropped down to land in a spot near Raxus' body that wasn't covered by the pool of blood from his body. It should have been frozen from the cold but the bright red liquid remained a puddle spreading over the street. There were several people standing a farther distance away, just some soldiers and mages still trying to fight the fires that were burning in the nearby buildings.

Ranma held out her arm and her sword leapt back to her waiting hand before she placed it back in the scabbard. Against a Dragon the sword maybe be next to useless, but Ranma didn't know what manner of horrors she may face before reaching him.

"You there! Girl, you were fighting him, how did that beast die?" One of the soldiers asked her gruffly, pointing to Raxus' headless body. "Who killed him?"

"I did." She answered, feeling no sense of pride that should come with defeating a foe greater than herself.

"You did?" He asked incredulously.

"Yes." Ranma leveled an impatient glare at the man for questioning her but a sudden dizzy spell made her stumble and leaned against a nearby building.

"Are you alright?" The man asked in concern extending a hand as though to help her stay standing.

"I'm fine." She brushed aside his concern. The sudden flashes of vertigo were growing weaker and less frequent so in a short time she should be fully recovered from whatever injury was causing it. "Could you do me a favor though? Could you find Favian and tell him I've gone." She didn't really know how to phrase the message. Maybe she should really add that she was going to fight Ladon.

"Listen girl I'm not a messenger, I have to help keep those guys safe so the city doesn't burn down around us." He gestured towards the mages who were fighting the now meager fires and the soldiers standing nearby. Ranma assumed their protection detail was mostly ceremonial since any fighting would be at the wall, and they wouldn't be able to retaliate against Phoenix attacking from the air.

"Please, it's important." Ranma felt a slight pressure in her eyes as she attempted to charm him. "Please tell him that I've gone to fight Ladon."

"Ah—." The man looked directly in her eyes and Ranma could almost feel his resistance crumble. "Okay— if it's important." He finally nodded, brown eyes developing a slight glaze. "I'll find him for you."

"Thank you." She silently apologized for using her charm even if it only worked on the willing. It was too bad she wouldn't be able to give a more detailed message, but something simple like that should get through. Stretching out her wings and flying off, she was glad at least someone would know where she went.

* * *

Standing with both hands on the railing surrounding the park, Favian looked out over the city, and was happy that the initial panic was now gone. Crews were working to stop the fires from spreading throughout the city and a solid defensive line was in place at the one breach in the outer wall. Ladon's army had retreated and he assumed that it was due to Raxus' death as well as the fear that Ranma would turn her attentions to his collected forces.

"You've overstepped yourself, Favian." Varis stated, the elder man walking slowly up to stand next to him.

Closing his orange eyes, Favian resisted answering Varis. Things were going too well at the moment to deal with any bureaucratic nonsense. Varis had to realize that without his preparations there would have been no way for their meager forces to be prepared for this siege. They weren't out of the woods yet, but with three of Ladon's children taken out of the fight, the scale was tipping in their favor.

"So now would be a good time to discuss our defense plans?" He asked sarcastically.

"You know what I meant." The elder man breathed out through his nose with a snort. "You went above your station. Even if it's because of you that the city remains you're still going to be raked over the coals for this."

"It's unimportant." He answered, glancing at Kasumi who was waiting nearby. The blonde had a look of muted happiness on her face, likely assuming that the danger had passed. Favian didn't like the current tension with the Tiefling but this was hardly the time to explain things. Thankfully Kasumi was smart enough to wait. 'Her trust is truly more than I deserve.' He thought to himself.

"Have you planned past this point?" The council leader asked.

"I wasn't sure we would get to this point and my first priority would be to reconstruct the barrier. But that will take months." He glanced backwards towards the destroyed spire. "We have to hope that Ladon grows impatient."

"He has waited this long, there's no reason to believe he won't try to wait us out."

"He's lost three of his most prized tools and without the ley line we are at our weakest. Waiting ensures our victory. Fury is likely his only emotion at the moment." Favian knew his brother, Ladon was waiting for the first sign of weakness, and then he would try to overrun them.

The rapid tapping of boots and clinking of armor alerted him to a soldier approaching and he turned to find a soldier in his early thirties stopping before him. "Lord Favian?" He asked with a slight uncertainty.

"Yes?" He answered, knowing that while his name was well known, he wasn't the most public of figures.

"I have a message for you, my lord." He bowed his head briefly. "A red haired Tiefling, I believe her given name is Ranma, asked that I tell you she is going to fight Ladon."

"Ranma said what?" Kasumi was the first one to respond, nearly getting directly in the man's face.

"That she was going to fight Ladon." The man said again.

"And you just let her leave?" Kasumi demanded angrily, her tail slapping the ground behind her. .

"Kasumi." Favian gently grabbed the girl by her shoulders. "Thank you, please return to your post." He told the soldier who seemed slightly confused at the situation as though he was just now realizing where he was. 'Was that man charmed?'

"What are we going to do?" Kasumi turned quickly to look up at him, her golden eyes shaking with fear. "We have to help Ranma." His descendent suggested without thought.

"There's no leaving the city I'm afraid." Varis butted into their conversation. "Such a waste." The elderly man shook his head sadly.

"Ranma will be fine." The Tiefling tried to boast.

"Kasumi's right." He added to reassure the girl. "I'm confident in my student and we all should be."

"I'll take the more pragmatic stance. But I will happily eat crow if she returns." Varis sighed. "And you know what must be done if it's not her who returns."

"Ranma will come back." Kasumi's brow furrowed as she glared angrily at the man. "He has to." She added in a tiny voice to herself. "He promised."

* * *

Ranma had attempted to give the mass of undead Phoenix a wide berth on her way to Ladon's volcano but she had been surrounded almost instantly after exiting the light created by the city. Entering into the dark area between Lutansk and Ladon's home, she panicked slightly at not being able to see the undead who lacked her limitation. Drawing her sword to deal with the reanimated corpses, the blade glowed brightly enough that she could make out their indistinct forms swirling around her.

None of them attacked her however, content to encircle her, and await her action. 'Guess he really wants me alive.' She decided, keeping her sword out to repel any surprise attack, and covered her mouth with her free hand. Even with the high winds at her current altitude, she could still smell the disgusting scent of their decaying flesh.

Her flight took nearly three times as long as it should have because she was unwilling to fully trust Ladon's puppets not to take advantage of any distraction. By the time she did reach the base of the volcano, she was able to see the mutilated corpses of the Phoenix better from the bright orange lava that was flowing freely down the outside in innumerable rivulets. Her escort of stolen bodies finally left her alone overtop the volcano.

Ranma didn't know what was worse, being surrounded by silent shapes meaning her harm, or that they had left her alone. Circling the area to try and get a better sense of where she should try to enter the network of tunnels in the interior. The volcano had to be nearly three kilometers in width at the base with several smaller mountains rising up around it, each belching out their own lava, and thick smoke. Ranma imagined that from higher up these smaller volcanoes looked like claws reaching up from the earth to grasp Ladon's home. Noticing that she was flying lower and lower as Ladon's heavy oppressive aura pushed down on her, Ranma forced herself to fly higher to avoid getting too close to any of the molten rock.

On the far side from Lutansk, she found a great chasm dug deep down into the ground. Ladon was supposed to be very big and he would have needed a way into the heart of the mountain. Dropping downwards in a lazy spiral, as soon as she reached the ledge of the chasm, she had to slow to a crawl to avoid lava as it formed waterfalls flowing down into the depths.

Using large rock outcroppings, she bounced downwards between them into the interior, feeling the temperature go from bitterly cold to unbearably warm. It was nice at first because her extremities were freezing from the cool night air, but now she wanted to start throwing off her clothing. Nearing the halfway point, the cave opened up towards the inside of the volcano, and she could barely make out a doorway carved into the rock. Rushing past the incredibly hot lava cascading down from the ceiling, she paused briefly outside of the four meter tall doorway to make a light spell hover behind her before she continued on.

The tunnel was just large enough for her to fly through with her wing tips only occasionally bumping the sides. Slowing to a stop and landing on the rough stone, she looked slowly left then right at the two paths she could take. Ranma slowly gulped, having no clue to the layout of the tunnels, and there was nothing she could see to indicate the correct path.

A small orange light spell popped into existence in front of her, glowing softly compared to the much brighter one she had summoned, it bobbed in place before rushing off down the left path leaving a quickly fading trail of light in its wake.

Gulping again, Ranma did not like this invitation. Ladon had to know that she was here and now he was showing the way. Following nervously, she kept her wings tucked in close while her tail made nervous twitches behind her. Finding the orb of light waiting at the next junction where three paths opened up, she expected it to continue but instead another formed at the entrance to the right tunnel. The original spell dissipated and the new one leapt down the right tunnel with an almost insistent feel to it's movement.

Following her incorporeal guide, she got the sense that Ladon's full attention had shifted to her as she moved further into his domain. Glancing nervously behind her after several meters into this new tunnel, she could just make out the entrance. There was something about this situation that was making her feel a strong sense of deja vu, as though this wasn't her first time here. Firming her resolve as best she could, Ranma allowed herself to be led deeper and deeper underground while trying to ignore the feeling that the tunnel was closing behind her.

'Left, right, middle, right, right, left, middle left." She constantly repeated to herself trying to memorize the way back. She was starting to grow wary of how uniform these hallways were. They didn't branch off into rooms and they were always the same height. The stifling heat was growing slowly worse, the tunnels remaining large enough for Raxus to walk down without bumping his head. Ranma was starting to notice a faint orange glow that wasn't from Ladon's spell down every twist and turn she was taking. Her nose crinkled at the increasing smell of decay, rotten eggs, and a scent she couldn't place.

Ladon's oppressive presence had grown to the point that she could barely make out a strange undulating and non-Infernal magic source nearby. It was very faint and with the intensity of the Dragon's aura she should have missed it. Watching Ladon's guide light rush down another tunnel, she looked to the right in the direction of the faint aura.

Deciding that a brief detour wouldn't hurt and would give her some time to prepare herself, Ranma abandoned the light to head down the path to the right. Up ahead she saw a faint green glow through a doorway in the side of the tunnel. This was the first side room she had seen so far and she slowed down to try and walk as silently as she could.

Peeking her head around the corner, she could definitely tell that the non-Infernal magic source was coming from inside the room. Hesitantly stepping through the doorway, her eyes traced upwards from the bowl shaped floor, up the three story sides with sharp rock out croppings, to the ceiling where a sickly green gemstone hung in the very center. A column of similarly colored light shone down to the center of the floor, illuminating a short rock pedestal with a giant bird egg sitting on it. Ranma could see a deep red aura being pulled upwards from the egg to merge with the green light.

Doing one last visual check to make sure there was no one else in the room, she approached the egg, intensively curious over the purpose of this room. The egg was obviously the source of the non-Infernal magic and it was being siphoned off to power something. Transferences like this were well beyond anything Favian had been willing to teach her. But she could guess that this was being used to support the undead spell and whatever was in the egg had to be incredibly powerful to be felt over Ladon's stifling presence.

Crossing her arms and cupping her chin with her right hand, Ranma shifted her weight to one side, and considered the spell before her. Surely just by the location this spot was secure, navigating the tunnels or even getting to the entrance that she used would be a daunting task for any Mortal without flight. But why wasn't it guarded at all?

The tip of her tail twitched side to side as she considered the mystery before her. Obviously this was a great opportunity to hurt Ladon without even seeing him but how was she going to stop the transference? Reaching down to the stone floor, she attempted to create a small stone, but her hand instantly recoiled from a small backlash. "Ouch." She shook her hand, half of her arm feeling numb.

"Is this whole room part of it?" She mused, wishing that she knew more about the complicated process. Throwing a small fireball towards the egg, the weak spell didn't even enter the beam of green light before it was torn apart to quickly rise upwards. 'I don't think it'd be very smart to shove my hand in.'

"Guess that answers why it's not guarded." She sighed, having no idea how to get around the pseudo barrier. Ranma could try to overload it but she had no clue how big of a spell it would take and she did not want to add to the power of Ladon's spell if it failed.

As diverting as this detour had been, without knowing more about the complex spell around her, she didn't want to risk a brute force approach. Ranma was just about to return to the even more daunting task of finding Ladon when she noticed a gentle song reaching her ears.

"Hello?" Ranma called out, noticing that whoever was singing was female, and they were nearby. Realizing immediately how stupid calling out was, she stood perfectly still listening to the singing, and for any signs of movement. She would have no friends here and had just ruined any element of surprise that she could have had. Ladon had four more children and she did not like her odds of fighting multiple Tieflings who could be as strong as Raxus. (1)

The only response to her stupid outburst was that the singing grew more distinct to her ears. Remembering Ladon's siege spell, she leapt up to fly around the room in panic, looking for the woman who had to be hiding in the room. Ranma couldn't trust that she would be able to deal with the result of whatever spell was being cast, but she couldn't find anyone. There was nowhere to hide and after three circles around the room, she decided to get as far away as possible. Dropping back down where the door should be, she found only smooth stone with no sign that there was ever an entrance.

"Damn it!" She punched the wall, hoping to break free, but all she did was hurt her knuckles. Her earlier panic returned with greater force, she was trapped in this room with someone casting a spell on her. Spinning, she flattened herself against the wall, and fought down the urge to scream at the dark figure that towered over her. He was three times her height and cloaked in shadows so dark she could not make out any features. Ranma tried to move, to do anything, but she was frozen in place.

Disappointment, the feeling settled over her like a wave and everything about her was swallowed up to be replaced by the spell.

Ranma looked up at the man, feeling his disappointment, and fearing him. He was angry, always angry, and he hated that the first child he had sired was female. But there was another man, he wanted her to live, and he seemed so caring at first.

The world jumped around her and now there was a small boy she could see clearly. He was covered in red scales, had wings, a tail, and a reptilian face. 'Raxus!' Ranma briefly struggled against the spells hold before it's power was reasserted over her. The man, her father, was happy for once. He had what he wanted and she was no longer needed. But once again the other man kept her from harm. Her younger brother, he was weaker, but he tried to torment her. She would have killed him but her father gave him free reign to do as he pleased, and he enjoyed causing pain.

Again her perspective changed and there were twin female Tieflings, all three of them were together, staying close for protection from their brothers. Scrounging what food they could and learning as much from the other man as possible. She now knew that he wanted something from them and that he was not so kind.

Ranma was watching herself now, approaching an egg placed upon a pedestal. She was watching from above, looking down with hatred at the child dressed in armor. Raxus had been slain, her chance to return the pain inflicted on her was forever lost. She hid and began to sing, trapping the young Tiefling within her spell. Her father wanted this one but since she no longer had a reason to live, she would take his prize or die trying.

Once again Ranma found her vision change, back in her body, she stared past the long broadsword to the female Tiefling preparing to stab her throat. As the sword plunged forward, she regained the ability to move, and ducked to the side. Hearing the other Tieflings blade strike the stone wall, she turned towards the woman, and punched her square in the face.

Staggering backwards, the woman shook her head once before taking in a deep breath. Ranma's eyes widened in alarm as the other Tiefling opened her mouth in a high pitched scream. The air distorted and shook, an orange glow shot out of the woman's mouth straight towards Ranma's position. Diving out of the way in panic, there was a loud bang behind her as the magical soundwave exploded with enough force to send Ranma skidding across the floor. Scrambling on her hands and knees, she put the transference spell between them.

The other Tiefling didn't stop her scream, turning her head, the wave of destruction followed from the wall, along the floor, until finally it hit the eggs pedestal. The high pitched sound stopped instantly as the woman's aura was drained, a sickening green mist connecting her to the beam of light. Clawing at her throat with hands ending in thick claws, she finally collapsed gasping for air.

"Why are you trying to kill me?" Ranma called to the Dragon Tiefling, finally having time to take in details about her opponent. Shoulder length red and gold hair with four horns sprouting from her forehead like Kasumi's but more pronounced. She was tall, easily over two meters, but with a very thin build. Behind her a tail nearly one and a half times her height curled and lashed about, striking the stone floor with a small spiked barb at the end. Her clothing was a simple brown dress to her knees with slits up both sides of the legs to her hips.

Ranma received no answered except for the woman to drop her sword and raise her right arm across her body. With a twirl of her fingers, ribbons of magical fire swirled forth to hover in the air briefly. Swinging her arm back across her chest, the first shot out to arc around the room towards Ranma's position. Vacating her position with a vertical leap, the ribbons of fire passed through the space she had occupied before twisting around themselves to rise up to meet her.

Bringing up a small shield against fire, the ribbons tore through her defense, and only a quick movement to the side saved her from being impaled. Dropping down several meters, she flew around the transference beam towards the other Tiefling while drawing her sword. The woman raised her left hand and another set of ribbons made out of fire lanced directly towards her.

Stopping her forward momentum, her body kicked out towards the woman from the force, and rolling to the side, she sliced through the original attack with her sword as it passed. The attack vanished with a pop while Ranma was busy avoiding and slicing through the second one.

"Stop— we can help each other." She begged, the strong feelings she had felt through the spell made her believe that the woman before her was not nearly the monster Raxus had been. The Dragon Tiefling twirled her arms about, shooting out more of the whip like attacks that Ranma had to dance around. "Don't make me do this." She pleaded.

Dodging and weaving around the barrage, she couldn't move any closer without the woman's attacks becoming too quick to react to, and there was no time to cast any long range spell. Ranma was rapidly growing tired but her opponent seemed to be as well. At any moment one of them would present an opening and Ranma did not want to cut the other Tiefling down.

Ranma saw the opening she was waiting for and lunged forward, with a single slash of her sword both of the magical whips were dissipated, and Ranma was within arms reach before the woman could draw forth anymore. Hesitating at the last moment, she stared into the fear filled orange eyes. Her pause allowed the other Tiefling to let loose a brief scream that hit her like a boulder, sending her tumbling back across the floor.

Groaning in pain, the sound attack making her entire body ache, Ranma rose up to her knees. Watching as one of the woman's fire ribbons impaled her chest, her body frozen from the sudden pain, she slowly looked down to see the spells ribbons still swirling chaotically through the unbroken chest plate. Collapsing back down on her heels, she could feel the tendrils moving within her body, burning everything they touched.

'It's not real.' She slowly started to raise her sword. 'I'm not really being stabbed.' As she raised her weapon, she felt the heat in her body increase. Unable to hold up her arm, she let it drop uselessly back to her side. Whimpering, she started to curl up into a ball as the tendrils seemed to spread throughout her body. Ranma's vision began to tunnel, unable to breath or even scream at the all consuming fire that was now burning her body, she could only lay on the stone waiting for it to end.

She couldn't be sure how much time had passed, the agony of the other Tieflings spell had made her world into an eternity of pain. When she could finally feel the world around her again, it felt as though she was floating. Her eyes fluttered open slowly, once again finding the other woman standing before her, only this time she was holding her up with a hand grabbing her chest plate. Ranma was being held up high enough that she couldn't touch the ground and her body was refusing to recover from the attack.

The woman was walking forward with her held up high with one hand and Ranma realized that she was being brought to the transference spell. "Why?" Ranma choked out. "Why are you trying to kill me?" She had felt it through the other Tiefling's song, seen it in her eyes, this woman wasn't a monster like Raxus and she hated Ladon. So why was she still helping him? (2)

Receiving no answer, she squeezed her eyes shut in pain, and summoned her sword. She could feel the surprise as the arm holding her up jerked. Opening up her eyes as soon as she was released, Ranma didn't lash out with her sword, instead she grabbed the still partially outstretched arm. Twisting around, she threw her hip into the other Tiefling, and turned the move into a throw.

Impacting with the transference spell and knocking over the pedestal, the egg rolled away before settling just outside of the sickly green magic. Ranma grimaced, unable to pull her eyes away from the sight of the other Tiefling with her mouth open in a silent scream. Briefly she tried to crawl out of the transference spell, but her aura was rapidly ripped from her body, rising and snaking outwards to empower the spell killing her. Slumping against the pedestal, her skin visibly dried and wrinkled within seconds, her body wasting away to skin and bones.

"I'm sorry." Ranma bowed her head and looked away, the woman's skin blackening, cracking, and flaking away. Her stomach heaved and she fell to her knees to throw up the last bits of Kasumi's dinner. Shaking, she covered her mouth with a hand, and felt her stomach lurch again but nothing else came up.

"I'm sorry." She repeated, throwing the woman into that spell had been cruel. Favian's original comment when she asked whether Ladon's children were being controlled or not finally hit home. They had been tortured into becoming the monsters he wanted and killed if they failed. She didn't want to think about how many women Ladon had raped and how many children had not met his expectations.

"Maybe you can find some peace now." She wiped at some tears that were falling from her eyes. Rubbing a hand over the chest guard, she could still feel the horrible burning pain as though it still curled and wormed its way through her body.

Dragging her hooves as she moved around and kept her distance from the pedestal. The Dragon Tiefling's aura had been exhausted and the beam of green light was now gone but she did not want to risk reactivating it. The only thing left of the woman's body was her dress that had slipped down to the floor. On the far side, she knelt down next to the egg before falling heavily on the side of her hip. Ranma felt emotionally and physically tired from her brief but intense fight and she really just wanted to take a nice long nap.

'Maybe rushing here wasn't such a good idea.' She thought to herself, it had been late when this whole thing started. Tired, still hurt from her earlier fight with Raxus, and now dealing with the after effects of a spell designed to torture. "Pop would say to use the Saotome Secret Technique." She scoffed before seriously considering retreat, wishing her father would be waiting for her back in Lutansk.

Slowly turning to the egg, she hesitantly reaching out to use a single finger to poke the egg, noticing immediately how warm it was, and almost in response to her touch, its aura started to rapidly grow. "You better not be another Dragon." She slid herself away when the egg began to shake back and forth. With a shark crack and a small hiss of steam, the top of the egg splintered downwards halfway down the shell. Blinking several times when all activity stopped, she moved slightly closer, curiosity once again overruling caution.

Picking at a shell fragment, she pulled it away, and let it drop to the floor. Peering inside, she found an infant curled up within the egg. "A Phoenix?" Ranma pulled the rest of the eggshell away to fully reveal the sleeping baby. He had jaw length red hair with two orange stripes framing his face with a small feather crest growing out of the center of his forehead. Tiny scaled hands with little claws were clutched to his chest, and she could just make out small golden wings.

"How can you be so powerful?" She asked, confused on how she should handle the situation. This baby had been able to survive being constantly drained of all his aura where the Dragon Tiefling had been killed almost instantly. On top of that, all the Phoenix were supposed to be very weak magically, none of the ones who survived were capable of even the most basic spells. The only one she had heard who was magically inclined was their leader Saffron.

"Saffron?" She asked stupidly, as if the hatchling would actually respond. Strangely enough two red orange eyes opened in response to look right at her. The baby immediately raised his small arms up towards her and began to cry."Hey— shh— quiet." Picking up the baby under his arms, she held the infant out away from her body. Immediately the baby Phoenix calmed down but still made little insistent motions with his arms to be closer to her.

"I guess if it'll keep you quiet." She groaned and held the infant to her chest. He immediately went quiet with his small feathered wings twitching occasionally.

"Now what do I do?" She was here to fight and hopefully kill a Dragon. There was no way she was going to be able to do that with a baby in her arms. If Ladon had expended this much effort to keep Saffron prisoner then she doubted he would allow her to simply walk out with him. And there was no way to forget the undead Phoenix she would have to fly through to get him back across the plain to Lutansk. She was faster than them, so if need be she could get past them to get back to the city.

Ranma wouldn't be able to live with herself if the baby was killed because she chose to fight. Could she do both? Would it be alright to leave him here alone? So far the other Tiefling had been the only other soul occupying this place. But there were several more of Ladon's children who could be waiting for her as well. Moving away from the center of the room to the far wall from the entrance, she placed her hand on the floor, and this time it didn't cause any feedback when she started to manipulate the stone. Roughly circular shaped rods rose up from the floor forming a rectangular shape with one side made up of the wall.

"This should keep you from wandering off." She remarked and gently deposited the infant in the makeshift crib. As soon as Ranma released him he started to cry again. "Come on kid! Stop crying." She picked the infant back up roughly in frustration.

"I know it sucks here and you don't understand a word I'm saying, but please be quiet." She begged, the infant being still in her arms. "Or go to sleep— anything." Her eyebrow raised, realizing that if the baby was asleep he would be quiet. Forming a quick seat, she sat down to see if the infant would oblige.

"This was definitely not in my plan." Ranma spoke softly, the infant being completely relaxed in her arms. She would have preferred to give the baby some clothing but the only thing around was the dead Tieflings dress. At least with the heat from the volcano and his own high body heat he seemed comfortable.

After several minutes of gently rocking the child, she felt him go completely limp. 'Finally.' She rejoiced, struggling to place the child back in the temporary crib without waking him. A harder task than she realized with how he seemed to want to wriggle from her grasp. Even though she hated leaving a defenseless child alone in a place like this, she didn't have an alternative. Stepping back several feet, she manipulated the stone to create a protective bubble around the Phoenix child with a few spots open for air.

"I'll come back." She promised.

Reluctantly leaving the room and heading back the way she had came, Ranma paused at the junction, and considered going back to the infant. She really should bring him back to Lutansk instead of leaving him alone. Two of Ladon's children had been more than capable of killing her because of her ignorance. Even with the time limit placed upon her she would have more than enough time to get some rest and recover as well as find out more about what she was going up against.

Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, she took a single step towards the tunnel and froze when one of the orange lights appeared directly in her path. More lights appeared in the other empty hallways except for the one she had been supposed to go down earlier. Watching the spell warily, she took another step forward, sensing that something was different.

With an angry hissing noise it doubled then tripled in size and consistency. The surface of the light had changed to be an angrily leering face made from lava with molten rock dripping down to the floor. Fire rose upwards from the eyeless socket while sparks popped and crackled as they shot out in all directions.

'Is that a fire elemental?' Ranma took her step back, trying to remember the best way to deal with an elemental. Water would be her best option but she would need to act quickly or else the entire area would be turned into an inferno. Behind her she felt another of the lights turn into a fire elemental, then another, until she was surrounded.

She would never be able to summon water quickly enough to drown out all of them. Water just wasn't her element and she lamented not putting more effort into training herself for it. Even preparing to raise a barrier may cause the elementals to attack. Doing anything other than what they wanted was a death sentence. "Kay— I get the message." She slowly took a step towards the single empty doorway, waiting to see if any of the elementals would respond negatively. Their only response was the constant churning of their forms and empty eye sockets staring in her direction. (3)

* * *

Nerima

"Why does this plane have to be so cold?" Michiko shivered slightly, alone in her mother's apartment, and with the thick comforter pulled up completely over her body. Sitting cross legged on the bed, a softly glowing light spell illuminated her little space, and she wished her mother was here to provide some extra warmth. Nodoka was spending the night with a man to recharge her energy and shouldn't be back until morning. Her mother had offered to include her but she had declined. While just as interested in physical intimacy as the next Succubus, she had no need for it, and wasn't in the mood.

Gently stroking the luxurious furred head of her familiar as it lay curled up overtop her bare feet, she enjoyed the happy chattering the weasel made at her touch. "Okay I think I got it." She told the small mammal who slinked from atop her feet to sit waiting for her to speak. Pausing and wanting to gush over how cute the familiar was, with large black slightly protruding eyes, and an elongated body she held it in and took a deep breath. "Alright here it is." She focused on Ranma's unique magical aura, letting the familiar lock onto the correct target.

"Hi Ranma! How's my big sister doing? Or are you back to being my brother? Well either way I've been trying to get a hold of you but nothings came back yet. I'm hoping it was just because I was using summoned creatures who I'm sure you know can be so unreliable. So I'm sending one last message with my familiar Hana. Me and mom are both well, she decided it'd be good for me to spend some more time here on the Mortal plane. It's been fun so far but I could really do without this cold. Brrr."

"Hopefully you'll get back before we head back home because it would be great if you'd come visit. See all the things you've been missing." She said suggestively. "Just in case you don't know, if you want to send a message back, just tell Hana that you have a message for me, and she'll bring it right back."

"Well I look forward to hearing back from you— and I know Hana will find you so you better respond." She crossed her arms and frowned. "Okay that's it."

The white furred weasel made a rolling chitter and nodded her head. Spinning in place the ermine dissolved into white mist and passed through the that Hana would be able to track down Ranma's magical signature, she would be very cross if her sibling ignored a third message.

* * *

Lutansk

To Ranma, every step towards the end of the tunnel was more difficult than the last. It felt like every time she put her hooves down, heavy chains would erupt from the floor trying to keep her in place. The air was thick, every breath burning her lungs from the heat. Glancing back, she saw only one of the fire elementals trailing her. 'If I can drown that thing with enough water I can get out.' She thought, imagining the best way to catch the force of nature unaware.

The elemental noticed her attention and it grew slightly in size before the lava making up its body began to bubble ominously. 'I hate these things.' She scowled briefly at the elemental before forcing herself to move towards Ladon again. Crossing her arms and tucking her wings in as close as possible, she passed through the doorway into Ladon's lair.

As soon as she stepped past the doors threshold a gust of hot air hit her in the face with enough force to make her stumble dome shaped room was gigantic, at least two hundred meters in diameter. A path led from the doorway to an island in the center surrounded by a lake of lava underneath..Large rocks rose up from the lake creating mini-islands. She had noticed the smell before but now she gagged at the fumes being created by the lava. The lake below swirled and bubbled angrily, spitting out more of the putrid fumes, and creating waves of heat that washed over her.

The walls of the dome held her gaze because she knew that she had seen this before. Engravings of men, women, and even some children were held in positions of torment, clawing and screaming over one another. Ranma gasped and covered her mouth with both hands, watching the images on the wall slowly shift as though they were alive. There were no empty spots, this vast structure blurred into one giant mural of shapes trapped in agony.

A deep voice boomed over the ambient sounds of the volcano with enough force to shake Ranma's body. "Come before me, girl." Ranma's eyes widened, feeling Ladon's powerful aura weigh down on her shoulders, his attention fixed solely on her. It felt like she was submerged in an oily liquid that clawed at her skin. Ranma realized immediately that it was some kind of spell but was helpless to immediately counter. "Your meandering is tiring. Enjoy the souls I've enslaved later."

She found herself walking without intending to and quickly stopped herself, focusing on the gigantic form of Ladon laying in the center of the room. The great Dragon's forelegs were folded over one another, his wide head was held high atop a long serpentine neck with both of his malicious orange eyes glowing brightly enough to be seen across the divide. Two wings were held up and out, making him appear to be even bigger. Ladon's long tail went over the edge of his platform, splashing through the lava like it was water, and revealing the spiked mace at the end. Thick red scales reflecting the orange glow from the lava covered a thickly muscled form and black horns sprouted at odd angles around his head, along his back, and at his joints.

Ranma approached the Dragon with trepidation, feeling his orange eyes dissecting her with the intensity of his gaze. The only movement was his tail as it splashed around in the molten rock. Remaining out of his reach, she tilted her head back to look upwards at Ladon's head, towering nearly ten meters above the ground. Her breathing was so fast that her lungs felt like they were on fire making her chest seize up and force her into a coughing fit.

"All this effort for such a homely female." Ladon's mouth moved with more articulation than she had expected. His voice shook the air with enough force that Ranma could see the lava around the platform be pushed outwards even as her body was buffeted by his words. "Although you have proven marginally useful in removing trash."

The sharp spike of anger she felt at his casual dismissal of the daughter she had just killed allowed her to once again notice the spell Ladon had placed on her. Ranma shivered at the feel of the slimy spell, rubbing at the exterior of her armor in a futile attempt to remove the feeling. Her moment of clarity was quickly being submerged beneath Ladon's oppressive aura. She had to focus past it, push through the Dragon's will with brute force, or figure out a way to remove his spell.

Ladon shattered her moment of concentration by continuing. "It has been some time since I've mated with a female and I was worried I would kill you in the process. But you appear to be of a sturdy constitution, fitting considering your race."

Ranma stumbled backwards and fell on her rear as Ladon shifted. He uncrossed his forelegs and rose up into a sitting position, more than doubling his height. "You have a weak mind though, a simple binding spell has brought you to your knees."

Her blue eyes widened at the confirmation that there was a spell on her. Immediately she felt the spell tighten it's grip around her, it no longer felt slimy, but hard as stone. Insidiously she could feel it strengthening it's hold the more it chipped away at her will, and the more her will failed the stronger it became.

"It would be a trivial task to break you. But I will take my time, let my fool of a brother, and the mortal worms he protects wait with growing dread for the return of my new weapon." Ladon snorted and twisted his head to look to the side at something very far off.

"No!" Ranma yelled, causing the Dragon's head to turn back towards her. She had to expel this binding spell he had placed upon her. Reaching for her reserves felt like slogging through mud but eventually she was able to draw it forth. Filling her body with the proper form of magic, she pushed back against the invading spell, crystallizing her aura to stop any ingress, and successfully rejected the spell. The vice around her body loosened then with an audible snap, the spell shattered. (4)

Bent forward and breathing heavily, she rested her hands on her thighs, her focus and purpose returning rapidly. Coughing and hacking from the fumes burning her lungs, she collapsed onto her knees, struggling to breath without aggravating her lungs further. 'Come on, I have to stand up.' She couldn't fight Ladon staring at the floor and she certainly couldn't remain in the volcano breathing this toxic air.

"Good." Ladon chuckled at her effort to break the spell. "Fight harder, resist me with all your might, prove your worth."

"Prove myself to you?" She straightened herself up and spat towards the Dragon. "That's worth more than you." As terrifying as Ladon's mere presence was, without his spell clouding her mind, she could think clearly now.

"Weak at insults as well. My claws have already dug deep into that vapid little head of yours, my spells can never be reversed, you are already mine." Ladon rose up to all fours, his long tail flicking behind him to send lava spraying in an arc. (5)

Ranma narrowed her eyes, shoulders shaking with rage, and held out her right hand. "Why does every asshole on this island think they own me?!" She shouted, dipping her hand and body down to draw up the stone. Thrusting her hand forward, a three meter long spike leapt towards the Dragon. Not waiting for the first impact, she threw three more before finally stopping to watch the result.

Ladon didn't react in the slightest, every one of her stone spears shattered against the armored scales around the base of his neck. "Did Favian teach you nothing but weak Mortal magic? Surely you can do better." Ladon sneered and took in a deep breath, the scales of his neck stretching outwards to reveal an orange glow.

Ranma moved backwards to put more distance between them so she would have more time to react. Ladon dropped his head forward and opened his mouth towards her. Flames erupted from his maw towards her with the thickness of a liquid. Staring in shock at the wall of flame that approached her, only her lifetime of training allowed her to instinctively react at the last moment to jump upwards and out of the way.

Continuing to fly upwards, she watched the fire break against the walkway like a wave, spilling over to add to the lava below. The intensity of the spell made her pause. In the world of magic she was barely an amatuer, her spells were unfocused and unrefined, which made them weaker. Ladon was so far beyond her that just his presence disrupted her spellcasting.

"Was that too much for you?" Ladon called up to her mockingly interrupting her thoughts. "Is that truly all that you can do?"

'Damn it!' Ranma cursed, trying not to let her anger show. Elemental magic was all she had to rely on and she had only developed fire spells. Rendering her best asset useless. Her opening salvo with Earth magic had proved to be worthless as well, anything she used against him would break against his scales. There was only one spell she could use and he would never give her enough time.

But he couldn't be unbeatable, there had to be a way to get past his defenses, there just had to be.

Hesitantly she gripped her sword's hilt. Gulping, she drew the magical blade free from its scabbard. Ladon was huge, the largest being she had ever seen, but that would make him slow and clumsy compared to her.

Descending slowly at first to gauge his reaction, the Dragon merely looked towards her with cruel delight in his eyes. Approaching now at high speed, she nearly missed his right front leg as it rose up to swat her from the air with surprising swiftness. Stopping with teeth jarring suddenness to let the clawed fingers as long as she was tall pass beneath her, Ranma back flipped out of the way of those same claws coming back to make another pass at her.

Dropping to the stone directly beneath him, she had a moment to take in the completely armored stomach as Ladon brought his head down to search for her position. Moving to avoid his gaze, she struck out at the back of his knee where the scales seemed thin enough. Ladon reacted immediately, his leg buckling slightly before his entire body shifted. Ranma had just enough time to get out of the way as Ladon's body twisted and turned around to face her. Suddenly she found herself staring at Ladon's front, the giant Dragon reaching outwards once again with his surprising speed to swat at her.

With no time to avoid him, she braced herself, and pointed her sword directly towards Ladon's palm. Ranma blacked out briefly from the impact, regaining her senses enough to notice that she was spinning through the air just before hitting the outer wall.

Time stopped, her aura was tore free from her body, the single moment that she spent touching the wall consumed her. She couldn't scream, couldn't move, all she could do was feel her body being stripped, torn apart by it's foundation.

Awareness returned suddenly, falling free of the wall due to gravity towards a small outcropping that ran around the dome. Landing heavily without the ability to soften her fall, her wings crumpled around her. Her face pressed into the dirt, whole body shaking, Ranma tried to get control of herself but it was hard to get over the acute pain that still wracked her body in waves.

Ladon's roar of anger shook her body, and was so loud that she instinctively brought up her hands to cover her ears. "You bitch" He bellowed, trying to dig out the thorn lodged in his palm with claws unable to grasp the small sword hilt.

Ranma raised her head up enough over a small berm hiding her form to see the Dragon stomping about on the center platform, incapable of removing her sword. Allowing a small smile to spread over her face, she enjoyed the moment of causing him some measure of misery while she recovered.

Glancing back towards the wall, she shivered at the recent memory just from touching it. The only thing that had saved her from the other Tieflings fate was gravity. She couldn't understand the full mechanics of it but if the walls were set to draw power then they had to be getting it from somewhere. Ladon was the only source here so she guessed it must be passively taking from him and as she just learned touching the walls was a very bad idea.

Giving one more quick look around the room, she didn't see any exits large enough for Ladon to leave as a Dragon. She knew that he could take a human form though so he could get out of the Mortal sized exits. So why hadn't he?

With the barrier down and Ladon being this powerful, he didn't need an army. He could have destroyed Lutansk and there was nothing that could have been done to stop him. So why did he stay here? It didn't make any sense. Did Ladon prefer to play such games? Was it all a joke to him?

Or could it be that he was simply unable to leave?

Either way, neither of them could touch the walls in any way, so she now had a way to fight him. Pin him to the wall somehow and she would win. 'Small mercy.' She thought morosely at her plan for victory, noticing the reality that she had lost a great deal of her reserves just from a brief moment touching the wall. Reserves already low from fighting Raxus. Which meant she could no longer rely on strictly mortal magic and would have to deal with the unknown effects of allowing her infernal side to power her spells.

Finally feeling like she was recovered enough to put her plan in place, Ranma flew over to hover above the walkway to the center platform. Ladon was still unable to pull her sword free, choosing now to bash his handlike paw against the rock in anger. Making the Dragon looking more like an angry child then ancient monster.

"Allow me my lord." She drew his attention with her sarcastic statement and summoned her sword to her hand. Ladon hissed in annoyance, slowly spinning to fully face her, his eyes glaring at her with hatred. Flicking the remaining gore off her blade, she placed it back in the scabbard. "My apologies."

"You think much of yourself for accomplishing nothing." He sneered.

Trying to laugh haughtily only led to her masking a coughing fit, her lungs burning with renewed vigour. "I accomplished a lot. So why don't you tell me why you're sitting here, huh? Scared to get your hands dirty and go fight yourself so you send out your kids?"

"I'm going to punish you for that remark." Ladon snorted, orange eyes turning into small angry slits. "Well— I'm going to punish you for things you have never done."

"Nah, I think I'll be able to just walk right out of here as soon as I deal with those annoying elementals you got patrolling the halls." She responded flippantly. Getting the incredibly powerful Dragon angry seemed like such a horribly bad idea but she needed him to make a mistake, to go after her physically so she could get him closer to the wall. "You can't leave— can you?"

"I have no need to leave." The Dragon moved towards her and she flew backwards to maintain the distance between them. Noticing her action, he stopped to watch her with fury in his eyes. "My patience with you is wearing thin."

"But you're the one who told me to fight." She responded cutely. "Resist with all my might." Ranma clasped her hands together under her chin to add to the effect.

"All things considered, it'll be just as fun to torture a willing slave." Ladon growled.

"Oooh." She cooed. "What are you going to do to me?" She wondered before noticing the rapid buildup of magic from the Dragon. 'Uh oh, this is it.' Ranma dropped the playful act and prepared to respond to another spell.

Whatever Ladon was doing was very strange, she could almost see the details of his spell. But it was being cast so fast she could only pick up bits and pieces. 'How can he make something so complicated so quickly?' She panicked, he wasn't casting a simple attack spell but something well beyond her ability to understand or avoid. Spinning, she decided to simply vacate the area rather than face whatever he was going to do head on.

Her face painfully struck an invisible wall after trying to fly towards the nearest exit. Cursing and clutching at her face, she backed up into another wall. Rapidly checking the other directions showed that she had been caught in a trap and was now stuck. Slashing at an invisible wall her sword just bounced off it awkwardly.

"This little rebellion is over." Ladon's eyes were now glowing a bright yellow and she got the feeling that he was nearly done with his spell.

Ranma's head darted in every direction and she tried to push her way through the walls. Flattening herself against the wall on the far side of the Ladon, she watched the air shimmer around her. Unable to avoid it or to come up with a counter, she cried out, hastily raising as many shield spells as she could, and tried to make herself as small as possible.

* * *

Kasumi shifted the blanket over her body and rolled over to stare through the doorway, across the hall, and into the room Favian was currently occupying. The Dragon turned human was searching through some book and a small candle to his right was the only light on in the home. She didn't fully trust him but with how hard he was working to stop Ladon, she believed his motives to be pure.

Not that it helped her get to sleep. Kiima had lost her arm in order to help Ranma end Raxus' monstrous existence. And now Ranma was out, most likely fighting for her life with no one who could help. Kasumi could barely understand how terrifying it must be, let alone how brave the other Tiefling was to face it alone.

"Kasumi, you really should try and get some sleep." Favian said without looking away from his book.

"How can I?" She rose up into a sitting position. "Ranma is out there alone and all I can feel is that evil Dragon." Ladon's presence didn't cause the fear she had seen in the mortals but it was a constant presence weighing on her thoughts.

"Ladon always enjoyed his aura of dread spell. He takes great pleasure in causing others discomfort." Favian explained casually, turning to another page. "As for Ranma—." The elderly man's shoulders slumped and he didn't say another word.

Kasumi left her temporary bed to cross the hall, grabbing a wooden chair nearby, she slid it over next to his desk. Placing her hands in her lap, she watched the former Dragon, and could see that he was in pain. "Ranma will be back, right?" She tried to sound reassuring but it was a hollow sentiment. Ranma had done several impossible things already and she wasn't confident that the streak would continue.

"I thought I had so much more time." Favian reached out and closed the book he had been reading. "I've sent a child to a fate worse than death." Bringing up his hands to cradle his forehead, the elderly man's shoulders slumped even further.

"Ranma chose to go on his own." Kasumi pointed out.

"If I would have explained everything from that start. What Ladon would do when there were no more obstacles. Ranma never would have left." Dropping his hands to the table, he finally turned to look at her. "For what it's worth— I'm sorry that I made such a terrible mess of things."

"You've been kind, supportive, and you gave two Tieflings a chance. And I don't think you have anything to be sorry about." She didn't like how he had kept his history a secret, but the circumstances were not favorable to divulge such information.

"You're both too kind." He shook his head.

"Why do you have to sell yourself short?" She asked. "Grandfather."

Favian raised an eyebrow at her address. "Several millennia of pointless posturing and bravado, covering up any insecurity with anger— destruction— death. If you want to call me that, you'll have to accept that part of my legacy, can you do that?"

"No, I can't." She forced a sad smile and placed a hand on his. "You're not that being anymore, remember?"

"Far too kind." He placed his other hand on top of hers.

"Can Ranma do it though? With that spell you were teaching him?" Kasumi struggled to ask, desperately hoping that he would say yes.

"It's—." Favian paused and she felt it as well, Ladon's aura was diminishing rapidly. "Yes— Ranma can perform the spell but—." Ladon's aura leveled off and didn't diminish further. "He takes too long to cast it, and Ladon will never give him the time needed."

"Maybe Ranma has one more impossible thing in him for tonight?" She wondered.

"That— dip in Ladon's presence." Favian gulped. "They must be fighting now and if he wants Ranma alive he would not have used an attack spell that powerful."

"What do you mean?" She asked in confusion.

"A long time ago Ladon created a way to enslave anyone who was plane touched. He wasn't satisfied with just binding them to his will. Instead he wanted to align everything they were to him. So they would serve him willingly for eternity with no hope to ever return to who they were." He explained gravely before answering a question waiting at the tip of her tongue. "The Ranma we know, won't be coming back."

* * *

Ranma was floating, eyes still squeezed tightly shut, and remaining curled into a tight ball. She had failed, Ladon had obliterated her with a single spell. Favian had tried to prepare her but she had arrogantly believed that she had been ready. Dorik should have taught her that she could not strut around with a delusion of invincibility simply because she had power.

'I guess this is it?' She continued floating in the soundless vacuum, trying to ignore the thunderous sound of the blood rushing through her own veins. 'Is this what happens when you die?' It seemed exceptionally cruel to be stuck in this void alone.

'But I don't want to die.' It felt like she was crying but she didn't want to move to check. Not that it mattered if she was dead.

Without an immediate focus, Ranma's mind drifted inwards, retreating from the empty void around her. She was so tired and sleep was calling to her. Maybe in the morning she would wake up in a warm bed. All the cold, undead monsters, and Dragons would be just a bad dream. Maybe she would wake up before being turned into a Tiefling. Life could be simple once again. Meeting Kasumi without the lies and her form driving a wedge between them.

Ranma barely noticed a small nudge shifting her towards a new direction in the empty space, a smile spreading across her face while imagining the life she should have lived.

* * *

It was a beautiful sunny day with several large puffy white clouds floating lazily overhead occasionally darkening the sky as they moved past the sun. All of Nerima had turned out in recognition for his latest heroic act. Ignoring the mass of Mortals he briefly focused on his wife Kasumi and five year old Tiefling son. His child may have taken after Kasumi but he was alright with that, a Dragon was more rapidly respected than whatever he was descended from.

'A man' He thought happily before considering why he had thought such a thing. He had never been anything other than a man. Puffing his chest up with pride, his great black wings spread behind him, and his tail swung back and forth lazily. Basking in the adoration of the common people long enough to partially satisfy his ego, he gathered up his son in his arms. Mortals were not important when put against his family.

"You're so amazing." Kasumi remarked, smiling proudly with her eyes closed.

"I know." He preened at his wife's compliment, hearing many of the women in the crowd gush over his attentiveness to his child.

Ranma was always overwhelmed with pride in his son. Only five years old and he soaked up everything Ranma could teach with impossible speed. Kasumi was starting to hint that she would like another child and Ranma would be more than happy to help her accomplish that once they were back home.

'But how am I going to do that when Kasumi doesn't even want to kiss me?' He thought and shook his head. That wasn't right, if Kasumi was that prudish around him they never would have had a son so soon after meeting each other.

"Things are so perfect— ever since you came into my life." Kasumi continued to smile, hands clasped in front of her hips.

His life felt so complete and perfect he didn't even wonder why he was a Tiefling. Pausing again, he didn't remember being a Tiefling before or becoming one. Ranma felt light headed, his thoughts twisting in on themselves. His head cleared as he focused on the child in his arms. He knew that the boy was his son but trying to think of details only drew a blank.

For that matter, why had an entire town turned out to cheer for him? What had he ever done that was so great to warrant such public recognition? Looking to the child in his arms, he couldn't even remember what he had taught him. Ranma couldn't even put a name to the happy little boy.

"Ranma, is Fanir bothering you?" Kasumi asked, holding out her arms to take his son.

"No." He answered her, his mind filling in missing blanks as rapidly as he thought of them. But he noticed that his lines of thought kept looping back to the present. Then again that was alright, he liked the way things were, and focusing on that made him feel better.

This was the kind of life he should have had after all.

Ranma froze up, the absent thought having cut through his rationalization like a knife. 'Should have had?' Wasn't this it? What other life did he have? Unbidden he saw a red haired Tiefling similar to him except she stood upon a pair of cloven hooves. She was battered and bruised, having survived several fights through the skin of her teeth, and was now fighting an ancient Red Dragon.

"Is something wrong?" Kasumi asked, having somehow taken his son from his arms so that he could stand next to her.

"I don't know." He responded absently.

"Do you want me to make it go away?" The blonde asked insistently.

Ranma started to say yes but hesitated. Something was wrong, buzzing at the back of his mind like a fly. "Kas—." He couldn't finish his statement because his wife kissed him deeply on the lips. "Kasumi?" He asked in a daze, tasting a sweet, and intoxicating coating that had passed between them with the kiss.

"You're getting distracted." Her smile lessened but her eyes opened enough to give him a lidded gaze. "Whatever you're worried about can't be important. So why not give it up?"

Kasumi was right, he shouldn't be paying attention to fictional women when he had his wife right in front of him. A gnawing at the back of his mind, something about this moment was important, almost like it would define him forever.

"Are we not the most important things in your life?"

Thinking about Kasumi's question, more justifications arose to focus on her, and he had nearly forgotten about the red haired Tiefling when he remembered that protecting the weak was his code. That one thing had been hammered into his head by his father for as long as he could remember. He couldn't just leave someone to face those odds alone. Besides he was the best and would be able to handle anything.

"Ranma, why are you so unfocused today?" Kasumi pouted. "You don't usually let daydreams occupy your time."

'Daydream?' He wondered. That vision of the girl had felt so real. He could feel the heat, could imagine the aches and pains she was enduring, and even her fear of losing. By contrast, he felt no breeze as the wind rustled the nearby trees. The sun was just an object hanging in the sky and provided no warmth.

"Ranma! Come back to me, I need you." Kasumi shouted at him from far away. Ranma looked around with a detached concern, everything had shifted and moved away from him creating a zone of nothingness several meters in a circle around his position.

"What's going on?" He asked himself, along with the world distancing him, he found it harder to feel for anything in it.

"You can't do this!" Kasumi shouted to him, her face twisted in rage. Everything but Kasumi fell away into darkness, leaving him alone with the belligerent shrieking of a figure who suddenly no longer looked like his wife. The face was still Kasumi's but it was attached to the black carapace of a centipede like creature. Over a dozen meters long, the creature paced back and forth, hundreds of legs roiling beneath it's bulk. Rising up so that most of it's body was off the ground, it screamed with a high pitched and harsh metallic grinding sound before collapsing to the floor. Curling and spasming briefly, it finally laid still.

He only had an instant to look at the disgusting creature before everything shook. The sudden and powerful jarring sent him tumbling to the ground face first. Unbearable heat now baked her body, harsh toxic fumes invaded her nose and mouth to burn her throat and lungs. The distant feeling, the detachment, was all replaced by the harsh suddenness concerns of her body. Groaning as she pushed herself up to a kneeling position, her mind struggled to deal with the rapidly changing circumstances.

"Impossible." Ladon's booming voice declared, a sliver of concern hiding behind incredulity.

Ranma focused her eyes forward, finding the scaled wall of Ladon's hand reaching out towards her. She was unconcerned at first until her mind finally settled fully back in her body. 'He's slower.' Ranma unsteadily flew backwards low over the floor to avoid the Dragon's clumsy attempt to grab her. Struggling to force herself back in the present, she placed both hands on the rock, and allowed her infernal side to fuel an attack.

In front of her the stone rippled and cracked, racing from her hands out underneath Ladon. Manipulating the stone with ease, four stone spikes as large as Ladon's arms rose up from the right to slam into his flank. The Dragon's large bulk was picked up easily and shoved to the side. Ladon's platform caved in to create the material needed to push him through the lava to slam into the side wall.

Green light erupted from the wall, wrapping around and engulfing Ladon's form with frightening speed. Ranma wasn't quick enough to disconnect herself from her spell, the green light traveling back to her. The screaming of thousands of souls trapped in agony assaulted her, their pain and torment overwhelming her mind briefly. Ladon's roar of anguish was loud enough to throw her backwards breaking the connection, he thrashed around wildly, and broke through the stone binding him to the wall to fall into the lava.

Ears still ringing, it took her several seconds before she could hear a soft wailing pouring from a crack in the wall. The green light was pouring through the new fissures, rising upwards like steam. Ranma could just make out the partial human shapes that were escaping their prison. The disgust and horror at all the souls trapped by Ladon nearly made her vomit. She had to destroy this atrocity.

Ladon rose up from the lava, it's thickness hindering his movements as he slogged through the liquid stone towards her. Hastily raising a barrier to block the lava, she noticed once again how slow Ladon was moving, even with the thick liquid slowing him.

With an inarticulate roar, Ladon snapped forward, his open maw wide enough for her to easily stand up in. There was a heavy crunch as the Dragon's mouth bounced harmlessly off her barrier. The transparent bubble barely rippled from the impact. Ladon recoiled, shaking his head in a daze but otherwise unharmed from being repelled.

'He's worn out.' Ranma realized with growing optimism. Maintaining the undead spell, the siege attack, the mind control one, and now the draining effect of the walls. A small smile spread across her face, enjoying the view as Ladon clawed at her barrier, the spell holding without any difficulty. "Performance issues?" She asked sarcastically.

"I'll not be mocked by the likes of you!" Ladon rose up above her, preparing to bring both of his front claws down on her.

Dropping her shield at the last moment and shooting upwards around his outstretched arms, she landed on his nose long enough to be seen drawing her sword. Jumping forwards, she plunged her sword directly into his left eye. Ladon roared in pain and staggered backwards, clumsily clutching at his one weak point.

Ranma flew away to put some distance between herself and the flailing Dragon occasionally spitting out fire in extreme fits of rage. 'I might just be able to do this.' She realized before a new reality made her pause. Ladon's stomping through the lava had left a coating of the superheated liquid rock over everything so there was no place where she could land. Which meant she wouldn't be able to throw him into the wall again.

"I'll make you suffer before your death!" Ladon cried out, head swiveling side to side trying to find her, his eye squeezed shut but still oozing blood freely. "Mortals! Demons! Gods! All of them will tell tales of your end!" His remaining eye finally locked onto her. "But don't think it'll stop with your death. Eternity will stretch out before you because I will never let the symphony of your pain end!"

'No room for error.' She gulped. While feeling much more confident, she knew that he could carry out such a threat if given the chance.

The sound of a roaring fire made her look towards one of the entrances, a fire elemental was passing through into the room. No longer merely a smiling skull, but a raging inferno forced into a hulking humanoid form.

"Oh shit." She exclaimed, not liking her chances against Ladon's fire elementals along with the Dragon himself.

Several more of the elementals arrived, rushing through the entryways, and leaping up towards her. Preparing to shield herself proved to be a worthless gesture. The elementals swerved in mid flight to fly towards the walls, struggling against the pull of the draining spell. Before they even physically touched the dome their bodies were so small that she couldn't even see the last of their bodies being absorbed.

"Worthless." Ladon spat in disgust, having remained where he was, likely expecting her to be dealing with the fire elementals.

Sparing a moment to laugh deliriously at her luck, she caught herself, and focused all her attention on the Dragon. Breathing in as heavy a breath as she dared, Ranma slowly extended her right hand forward. Her infernal magic leapt at her command as though eager to be part of her spell. The last time she had successfully performed this it had taken her ten minutes to get to this point. The ghostly outline of a lance twice as tall as her started to appear as the air shimmered and distorted. Even with the far more potent infernal magic helping she still couldn't fully summon the spear so she drew what she could from the ley line.

Taking a moment to bask in the feeling as her body was awash in infernal power, she felt her wings grow to their full size on their own. Letting out a shuddering breath, Ranma had to take a moment to refocus herself. With a soft hum the spear fully formed just out of reach of her hand. Favian had taught her elemental magic and with it how to use void to transmute elements. Her lance was not made from any specific element but void itself. It was pure black, absorbing and destroying everything that came into contact with it.

Ladon's mouth curled into an even more furious scowl, his wings spreading wide behind him. "No spell will avail you now."

His wings flapped once with enough power to thrust him up and out of the lava. Once again they beat the air sending him flying directly at her. Watching as the great Dragon rushed towards her impassively, she drew back her hand, the incorporeal spear floating just out of reach, she waited for him to close the distance, a shield popping into existence in front of him to deflect her spell.

Ladon's jaw opened wide, preparing to close down upon her. While frightening that such a huge being could move so fast, he was now so slow that she could have danced around him for days without tiring. Waiting until he was almost with an arms length away from her, she shot up over his nose as he mouth snapped shut. Looking deeply into his remaining eye, Ranma threw her hand forward, the spear following to hit him in the center of his forehead. No longer directly under her control, the lance immediately began to dissipate, but not before it had cut through his thickly armored scales..

The Dragon's body jerked as though he had struck a solid wall in mid-air. Ladon's body stayed suspended for a moment, the Dragon's one good eye continued to stare at her in hatred before he plummeted to the lava below. Crashing through the walkway, a wave of molten rock radiated outwards to splash against the dome.

Staring down at the still form of Ladon, Ranma tried to sense any life from the Dragon. But there was nothing, the only movement being caused by the lava wave returning to buffet his form. Ranma had never actually used the void spear before on a target but Favian had explained that it would have released a huge amount of energy, as the raw elemental magic was converted into matter.

Around her, she felt the magic from the dome shudder and recoil into the top center of the ceiling. With a bright burst of green light, a wave of energy cascade down the walls causing more cracks to form. Large sections started to break away and fall, destroying the horrific mural carved into it. Green mist was exploding out from any crack, Mortal forms swirling around as they rose up towards the center of the dome.

"Uh oh." Ranma avoided a large section of rock and realized that she didn't have time to bask in her victory. Flying at high speed to the entrance she hoped she had come in, Ranma tried to shrink her wings down to their medium size but they stubbornly remained at their current size, forcing her to awkwardly tuck them in. Shooting through the tunnel at high speed, she remembered that she had to get the baby Saffron before leaving, a moment before her wing caught a sharp edge. Careening into the opposite side, she tumbled forward helplessly to lie on the floor in a heap.

Moaning in pain, she hauled herself up to a sitting position, and rested against the wall to get a moment of rest. All she really wanted to do was to take a long nap but the increasing rumbling and shaking of the rock around her reminded her of how bad that would be. The entire tunnel collapsing behind her was all the incentive she needed to get up and start moving again.

Unable to run properly with hooves and not wanting to repeat her earlier crash, she skipped forward at a quick pace, careful to watch for falling debris. Bouncing against the doorway and into the room where she had left Saffron, she heard the baby Phoenix crying through her stone crib. Dissolving the rock around him, the Phoenix baby immediately held out his small arms to be picked up.

"Time to go!" She hastily picked him up just before the room started to collapse. Giving up trying to be careful as more and more of the volcano collapse around her, she weaved, and spun her way through the tunnels in a mad dash to try and get to the exit.

She could barely breath her lungs felt like they were on fire, and a brief coughing fit nearly made her run face first into a wall of rock blocking the tunnel. Flaring her wings and sliding along the stone, she came to a stop just in time. Hearing rumbling above her, she didn't have time to sort out the obstruction, so she turned and went backwards. Pausing at a junction, she had to stop to try and slow her breathing. Struggling to catch her breath, she noticed one tunnel had a golden light near the end.

Desperately she ran towards the light, the tunnel collapsing before her. Squeezing through any narrow gap, she barely made it through the doorway as tons of rock closed the passageway behind her.

Laying on her back and breathing haggardly, she painfully rose to a sitting position facing the caved in entryway. Her shoulders slumped and she held the terrified but silent infant to her chest protectively. The glow behind her wasn't from the sun and it was too cold to be more lava. "Guess we'll have to find another way out, right?" She asked the uncomprehending infant, turning to find out what fresh nightmare awaited her.

* * *

Author Notes

1 - Ranma doesn't know that the twins were captured.

2 - She's actually mute, any sound she makes it created by magic.

3 - Elementals are constructs of pure magic and they cannot be killed only dispersed. Released back into the local elements they can be either absorbed and never reform, or they may quickly come back together. All depending on where they are. A fire elemental dispersed near fire can reform within moments.

4 - Auras are normally like a cloud hanging around a person. Any spell that affects one works by intermingling with this cloud. Binding spells work in this way and the proper defense for it is to solidify the aura so that there is nothing to mix with. This requires a great deal of concentration and is rarely used because it offers no other benefits.

5 - Ladon is referencing the original nightmare spell which left little scars on Ranma's psyche. If it had been left on longer or ran it's full course, Ranma would have been left with much larger personality changes, and with the latter would have been Ladon's willing puppet.

A Burnt Out omake

The baby Saffron wailed and clutched at the female figure he had imprinted on. She was under him, weakly holding him protectively to her chest. Her breathing was labored, the damage from breathing toxic and superheated fumes would quickly kill her. As his underdeveloped wings flapped awkwardly while he attempted to pull himself closer to her, his first feather to molt released, and gently floated down to land between her eyes.

A soft golden glow appeared around the feather drawing his attention. He could feel a warm comforting power well up within him. Unable to properly control his power, a connection was made between him, and the female beneath him. She coughed up a small amount of blood before the golden glow washed over her body.

Staring transfixed, Saffron watched the form beneath him be reshaped. Her wings shrunk and altered shape into featherless bird wings. Thick scales and long talons grew from her hands. Her hooves melted away into long taloned toes. The spade tipped tail laying at an awkward angle to her side along with the horns on the side of her head shrank and disappeared. Finally her featherless wings bloomed with dark black feathers mottled with bright red ones.

Saffron's sniffles ended and he stared in fascination at the being who had been remade into a beautiful Phoenix. Bright blue eyes slowly opened to stare into his own red ones. In that moment another connection was made. Where before he had existed as a singular entity, forever caught in a cycle of death and rebirth, bringing his people both feast and famine. She was now his opposite. Where he could not provide, she could, when she could not, he would. He had created a new cycle. For him he would now be son and father and her to be mother and daughter.

Of course these thoughts were beyond the current capability of his infant form so they were quickly forgotten. Saffron was picked up gently in her taloned grasped as she sat up before happily snuggling against her as she held him to her chest.

Lucky Rolls

By Bree R.

"How? Those were your desires made manifest. How could you not accept?" One of the players demanded angrily.

"Because I rolled another twenty!" The smirking brunette replied, turning her smirk to the scowling dungeon master behind a cardboard screen with a snarling black dragon painted on it, before proudly picking up a die and showing her accomplishment.

Rolling her eyes and coughing before beginning dramatically, "Coming to your senses you snap out of Ladon's mind construct and at the last second see one of his giant hand-like forepaws reaching towards you. Roll your reaction die, and your attack dice."

"Oh! Nineteen for the reaction roll plus umm…What modifier again? Oh yeah twenty-five!" The girl proclaimed proudly, before rolling again. "Oh! Sixteen plus, err fifteen with my magical bonuses, plus the additional five from the magical enchanted armor I'm wearing towards hmm let's see...Oh a Magical Lance!." To groans from players to her left and right slightly off put that the girl broke from the party again and them being unable to follow hadn't resulted in her death yet again.

Looking down at a sheet of paper below and then looking back up at the rather interesting woman in front of her she sighed. It was so tempting to tell her she failed and ended up dead on the ground but with her damn modifiers she had actually won... again. Who knew a tiefling multi-classing would be so effective. Well at least she knew the things to fix for the next project. "You manage to not just dodge his strike but also respond with a rather strong spell. It blindsides the overconfident and enraged dragon knocking him back into the magical stone which had been responsible for locking the souls into place."

"Haha that's right! You're so stupid splitting the party you said, your luck has to end sometime you said! Um not that you're not running a great campaign and it's more than a challenge." She said quickly smiling as cutely as she could at the woman in front of her who was looking at her with a slight tic on her face.

"Right." She said before sighing and looking down at her notes trying to figure out what to do now that this group was well on the way to overcoming the odds once again. Sighing once again, she looked down at one of the other papers in front of her. A beautiful woman's picture peeked out a few pages later before she turned to it. The young woman sat in a picturesque forested glen surrounded by fairies, all of whom were waiting on her. Some with small nail files in their hands, others braiding her long immaculately cared for red hair. Her eyes shone brightly an odd purple in color, a smug haughtiness showing clearly through her expression as she looked towards the camera. 'Heh. Let's see how they deal with you.' She thought before bringing her attention back to the game.


	14. The Wrong Person

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda sign#

**Spoken spell**

This story won't abide by any strict fantasy universe but whatever I feel works best. Though I suppose at a base it's a D&D or Forgotten Realms world. Do not give me any reviews complaining that what I have doesn't fit into something as this is a world of my creation. If I feel something needs to be expanded upon and I can't fit it into the story I'll include the details in the author notes.

* * *

Floating high above the fight below, the God Razu watched with both pride and regret as Ladon was slain. In a perfect world he would have dealt with the Dragon long ago, but direct interference in Mortal affairs was heavily frowned upon by both sides. So he worked passively to support the cities population, providing comfort where he could. However there was always a way to bend the rules, and the young Tiefling had directly asked for his assistance so it was acceptable for him to help. Since she was so inexperienced he decided to give her some invaluable insight she would have missed otherwise.

As the volcano collapsed down around his head, he kept himself incorporeal, allowing the mountain to pass through him. Keeping an eye on his charge, he noticed a Demon attempting to block the girl's path by collapsing the path out. 'Your champion lost.' He thought with contempt at the petty act. The game was over and the pieces had to fall where they may.

Examining the tunnel structure, he smiled and strengthened a new path for the girl to take, knowing that the Demon would not risk open conflict with him over a Tiefling's life. After watching the girl reach safety, he bit back the urge to do more, and forced himself to return to Lutansk. It would be dawn soon and he had to keep watch over the citizens and his humble temple.

* * *

"Wow." Ranma wheezed out a breath, her jaw refusing to close at the sight that greeted her.

The room was at least thirty meters in diameter with magical lights placed halfway up and around the room. Small and large piles of gold coins and bars sat at the foot of a literal mountain of gold in the center of the room. Brightly colored gemstones sparkled amidst the soft golden glow and ancient artifacts peaked out from their partially buried homes.

Reaching out her free hand in a daze, she hesitantly picked up a nearby coin. The inscription was from a country she had never heard of and a date printed on it showed it to be nearly five hundred years old. Her blue eyes slowly traced upwards to the largest pile, unable to stop herself from laughing deliriously. There was more wealth here in just the gemstones than anyone could spend in a lifetime.

Struggling up to her feet, her hooves slipped momentarily on some of the gold she had been laying on before she was vertical. If she had pockets she would have been filling them well past the brim. Hundreds, thousands of years of Ladon's ill gotten gains lay spread before her. It was overwhelming and she had no clue what to do. Shifting Saffron slightly, the baby squirmed at her sudden movement, but remained quiet.

Coughing and hacking, she slipped, and collapsed onto her knees. Covering her mouth with her hand she struggled to get her breathing back under control. Feeling light headed she slowly pulled her left hand away from her mouth and saw that it was covered in a coating of blood. The baby in her arms made a plaintive whine and tried to grab onto her better.

"Where's that jerk doctor when I need him?" She coughed again, struggling to get back to her feet while desperately looked for an exit. Ladon's hoard could wait, she needed to get back to Lutansk. She needed to get help.

* * *

Two Days Later

Ranma's eyes snapped open and she shot up into a sitting position, her large wings briefly flaring before tucking in close to wrap around her body. Eyes wide and unfocused, she breathed in and out rapidly through her nose. A shiver ran up her body and finally she was awake enough to notice her surroundings, the nightmare she had been already dissolved into a distant memory.

Immediately she became aware of Saffron preparing himself to start crying. Quickly gathering him up from where he lay to her right, she made soft shushing sounds at him, and gently rocked him until he quieted down. 'Safe!' She mentally cheered, having avoided the head splitting cry of the Phoenix child.

"Are you alright?" Pepa asked quietly, floating over from a nearby table where a small pillow was serving as her bed. The fairies large concerned eyes shifted down to the baby.

"I'm fine." Ranma answered, her voice was hoarse and barely louder than the tiny fairy.

"Okay." Pepa nodded and traveled down to the foot of the bed to sit down to watch Ranma attentively.

'Thanks to you.' She added to herself, feeling uncomfortable with vocalizing the sentiment to the spell creature. The events were hazy, but she had collapsed a little over halfway back to Lutansk. Pepa had noticed her distress somehow and had got the attention of Favian to go search for her.

Ranma's breath caught and she fought down another coughing fit. Waving off a concerned question from Pepa, Ranma delicately placed Saffron back down to her right. Swinging her large wings around, she twisted to lay on her side with the baby almost touching her stomach.

Staring out the window, she must have missed Kasumi once again because the sky was black, and the room was lit by several candles. It had hurt that neither Kasumi or Favian had visited up until Pepa had informed her that they had visited several times but she had been asleep. Ranma's former fiance had been kind enough to leave off a couple of her male sized tunics to sleep in rather than the scratchy hospital clothing made from super cheap fabric.

She hadn't expected to be staying in the hospital but the toxic fumes she had inhaled nearly killed her. Only her rapid healing and quick exit had saved her. Unfortunately without the barrier to suppress her infernal side, no Mortal doctor could perform any healing spells on her. While Ranma had gained a great amount of control, her passive presence alone overwhelmed any attempts. So she would have to recover without assistance, a limitation she would have to remember going forward.

Seeing the face of one of her Phoenix guards peeking in from outside the door, she rolled her eyes. The Phoenix were not leaving her alone, having been alerted quite quickly that the baby Saffron was with her. So now she had a pair of guards at all times that had quickly learned she hated them being in the same room watching her like hawks.

Her big problem was that none of the Phoenix could take Saffron off her hands. Apparently when he hatched from his egg, he imprinted on her, and would cry without end if taken away. There was a way to change that but they were holding off on deciding who would get to experience this particular honor until Kiima regained consciousness. She didn't see why they were waiting. Kiima wasn't going to want to do it and there were several female Phoenix who were more than capable of stepping up.

Yawning, she just wanted to go back to sleep. Remembering the child, she made sure he was under the thin blanket as well. "Don't wake me up." She mumbled to the infant drowsily.

* * *

The Next Day

"And now take a deep breath." A female doctor named Liana instructed, sitting on the bed to her side, with a cold metal stethoscope pressed against Ranma's back. The doctor was younger than the others Ranma had dealt with, looking around thirty years old with short black hair, and her bangs pulled to the left side by a silver barrette.

Wheezing in a deep breath to the point where she coughed lightly, Ranma breathed out, and waited impatiently for this inspection to be over. Kasumi had arrived midway through the physical and was forced to wait outside while the doctor finished. Pepa was busy keeping Saffron occupied, the baby happily giggling at the glowing fairy dancing around him.

"Your condition is noticeably better than yesterday." The woman noted, pulling the stethoscope away from Ranma's back. "I wish there was more I could do."

"It's alright— I'll live." She shrugged, feeling a little overwhelmed by the generally positive attitude the Mortal inhabitants had gained towards her. Ranma had noticed that multiple doctors were fighting just to check on her and the nurses were far more attentive. News had filtered up to her through the nurses that there were many high profile figures trying to pay her a visit.

"Help!" Pepa called out, interrupting their discussion.

Ranma twisted around to find that the fairy had been caught by Saffron who was happily squeezing and shaking his hands. As soon as she reached out to pry Pepa away from the Phoenix, the spell creature was forcibly shoved into his mouth head first. Her eyes widened and before Saffron could move another muscle she had plucked Pepa from his grasp.

"You good?" She asked the fairy who's blue hair was matted down by saliva.

Pepa looked shaken but nodded her head rapidly, wiping some of the spit from her eyes. "I'm sticky."

"Yea, you are." Ranma released Pepa and used her tail to distract the child, trying to turn the game of keep away into training for her extra appendage.

"Why don't you use the wash basin in the corner to get clean?" The Doctor suggested helpfully.

"Good idea." Pepa answered as though it was a great realization.

'Still not much with common sense.' Ranma mentally sighed.

"It seems like you have your hands full." The Doctor smiled warmly at her. "Taking care of an infant is never easy— even when expecting it."

"He should be taken by one of the Phoenix soon enough." She flicked her tail a short distance from Saffron, making him crawl in order to follow.

"Then you should enjoy the brief practice for when you have your own."

"I'll pass on that." Ranma answered that suggestion with a derisive snort and the woman just laughed at her response.

"Be that as it may, if you need to talk about anything at all, I'll be available. You have been through a great ordeal, it's normal to have emotional distress on top of physical injuries." Liana patted her on the shoulder before rising to her feet. "Is there a time you would prefer me to visit you for checkups over the next week?"

She wanted to protest that she didn't need to be smothered by some doctor but it would be smart to at least keep track of how fast she healed. "Anytime in the morning I guess." She answered meekly.

"I should be able to work in quick check ups at nine." Liana rapidly scribbled down a note on a small piece of parchment she was carrying.

"Alright." Ranma nodded, accepting the frivolous doctor visits.

"Then I will be seeing you tomorrow at nine o'clock sharp." The woman paused before inclining her head towards Ranma. "And thank you."

"For what?" She asked glancing backwards when she noticed Saffron's tiny clawed hands grabbing at her tail. Refocusing her efforts at keeping it just out of reach, she made a note that his little claws were sharp.

"Because you saved my life and my family. Haven't you realized it yet? You're the hero of the city." Liana nodded towards her again. "I'll send your friend in."

Ranma watched the woman travel the short distance to exit the room. "Oh my." She gasped.

* * *

Kasumi hid her irritation at the Phoenix guards stationed outside of Ranma's door. Everytime she had come to visit they had tried to prevent her access to the room, and one would always follow her in to keep watch on everything she did. She understood their hatred of Dragons but their blanket assumption that she would be anything like Ladon's children was heavily grating on her patience.

Thanking the doctor on her way out, Kasumi ignored the two Phoenix, and closed the door behind her. Ranma was sitting up on her hospital bed, the baby Saffron happily playing with her tail, and Pepa drying herself off next to a washbasin in the corner. Her red haired companion was staring mutely forward and didn't acknowledge her presence. Kasumi found it strange that Ranma's wings were their full size considering that the other Tiefling didn't like them that big.

"Hi Kasumi!" Pepa greeted enthusiastically. "Saffron tried to eat me so I was all sticky."

Kasumi took a second to register Pepa's explanation and couldn't help but give a brief chuckle. "Be careful, he doesn't understand that he can hurt you."

"I will." The fairy nodded.

Turning her attention back to her former fiance, she found that she was still being ignored. "Ranma?" She asked nervously, stepping forward to be an arms length away.

According to Favian, Ranma had indeed been subject to Ladon's spell to completely alter her to his whims. Other than some shock over the recent events, none of the doctors or nurses had noticed anything out of place. But they didn't know Ranma and aside from the still comatose Kiima no one else knew the redhead personally.

"Ranma?" She asked a bit more forcibly, gently laying a hand on Ranma's shoulder. The other Tiefling's vacant eyes slowly focused and turned to look up at her with a relieved smile.

"I kept my promise." Ranma's voice came out in a whisper, a remnant of her damaged lungs, her blue eyes quivering with emotion. The redhead looked so small and frail to Kasumi, it was hard to imagine the immense magical power, and physical strength that Ranma wielded.

"You did." Sitting down next to the smaller girl, she thought that Ranma pointing out something she had said before was a good sign.

"I did." Ranma reaffirmed to herself.

Kasumi couldn't hold back anymore and gathered the smaller Tiefling up into a hug. "Don't ever run off and scare me like that again." She whispered, feeling no resistance from the cursed teen at being embraced. "I want that promise from you."

"You don't have to worry about that anymore." Ranma answered into her dress.

The redhead gave a quiet yelp and leapt from her arms and out of the bed before Kasumi could ask about the strange wording. "Don't bite that." Ranma chastised Saffron, inspecting her tail for damage.

Glancing back, Kasumi found Pepa giggling madly and the baby Saffron clumsily clapping his hands against his thighs with a big smile on his face that showed off his mouthful of baby teeth. Demurely covering her mouth to also laugh at Ranma's tail being bitten, she was thankful that her own was armor plated. Which made doorways far less terrifying growing up.

"He caught you too!" Pepa guffawed, nearly falling from her place hovering over the bed.

"I'm not too sure about a Phoenix as a roommate, even one as cute as you." She joked, picking up the baby who squirmed in her arms so he could keep Ranma within his field of view. "Do you know what they are going to do about him?"

"They are discussing who is going to get him." Ranma answered sarcastically with a roll of her eyes, her breath caught leading to a small coughing fit.

"Are you sure you're feeling up to leaving?" She asked, concerned that Ranma was more interested in being out of the hospital than her health.

"Just a cough." The red head waved off her concern. "Lemme get dressed, I want to visit Kiima first."

"Okay." Looking away to give Ranma some privacy in the small room, it was ultimately a futile gesture because the other Tiefling simply put on a pair of pants. "Ranma, is there a reason you have your wings that size?" She asked, finally deciding to ask about the oddity.

"I'm not sure." Ranma answered, pulling her left wing forward to grip lightly between her hands. "I used a lot of Infernal magic and they just grew out." The red head squeezed her eyes shut tightly in concentration and after a brief moment of no result, her wings haltingly shrunk down to their normal medium size. As soon as she relented they rapidly grew back out. "And that happens if I try to shrink them."

Kasumi's brow furrowed in concern, trying to analyze the flows of magic around the smaller girl. Ranma wasn't projecting a very strong infernal aura like she did before learning control, but her body itself seemed flooded by it. "Maybe you just have to get used to not having the barrier around." She hypothesized, without the barrier constantly rejecting their infernal presence she had noticed that it was harder to control that part of her aura as well.

Ranma nodded. "It was a crutch." The red head pulled the furred cloak Favian had given her from a hook on the wall and affixed it around her neck to let it fall between her wings. "I relied on it to keep my infernal side under control. As Pop would say, boy!" Ranma paused to take a deep breath, trying to deepen her voice. "You'll have to be trained again from the ground up!" She tried to announce grandly but her voice stayed as a strained whisper.

Kasumi giggled demurely at Ranma's proclamation. "We can do that together? Can't we? When we get back home?" She asked hopefully. As soon as they returned Ranma would be under no compulsion to remain other than their strained friendship.

"Of course." Ranma's hooves made soft tapping noises on floor as she came over to take Saffron from her arms.

"I can carry him if you want." She offered.

"Nah, he'll stay quiet if I have him." The other Tiefling sighed. "It'll be nice when they finally decide what to do with him." She added half heartedly, brushing some of his brightly colored hair from his face.

The door opened suddenly and the two Phoenix guards stepped in to bow to Ranma. "Are you prepared to go my lady?" One of them asked politely.

"I am, but why don't you two make yourselves useful and tell me where Kiima is." Ranma asked dismissively.

* * *

Nerima

Michiko felt that something was amiss with the Tendo home. She was visiting Kasumi's younger sister Akane and after inviting herself in the front door, she got the distinct impression that something was wrong. The condition of the house had noticeably deteriorated since her last visit. Floors needed to be swept and washed for a start. Somehow many of the doors and windows had become tilted off their hinges or left ajar, letting in a cool draft.

While she was expected she had decided to sneak in for a bit of fun. Hearing an old man's voice cackling in laughter from the living room. She peaked around the corner and blinked her eyes several times upon seeing a gnome visiting.

"Hello." She greeted, stepping out to give a friendly wave, and mostly ignoring the other occupants of the room. Up until she noticed the horrified looks on Akane, Soun, and her father's faces. "Something wrong?" She asked.

"Hello to you too, cute stuff." The small gnome hopped up on the low table with surprising speed. His big round eyes devouring her body with his gaze and actually making her feel uncomfortable.

"Master she's too young!" Genma appeared between her and the gnome. Michiko missed the movement that sent her father face first into the floor and how the small mortal came to be sitting on his back.

"You remind me of someone, but who?" The old Mortal asked curiously, tapping a long pipe on Genma's back before lighting it with a small flame spell.

"Master please." Genma groaned from his spot, earning a much harder tap to the back of his head.

"Would you stop hitting him?" She requested as politely as she could to a man. "He is my father." She shrugged.

"Genma's daughter eh?" Bouncing up to his feet, the small man's eyes looked at her with a far more calculating gaze. "What's your name?"

"I'm Michiko." She introduced herself, feeling vaguely threatened by the tiny man's presence.

"Ya know Genma, I saw you making eyes at that Succubus I kept as a pet but I would have expected your kid to be a lot older. Wasn't expecting that trull to keep her legs together long enough for my body to get cold."

"Jealous you could never satisfy her?" She asked, angry at the pet remark.

"You're so mean!" The gnome wailed, wiping at tears that rapidly sprang from his eyes. "Let me cry my sorrow out into your bosom!" Leaping towards her faster than she could move, she squeezed her eyes shut waiting for him to hit her.

When nothing came, she slowly opened up one eye, and found that the gnome was sitting calmly at the table sipping at a cup of tea. "What? Couldn't get it up to give me a good grope?" She demanded, not wanting to have those tiny hands at her developing breasts but feeling slighted that he would use that as a joke.

"Nothing to grope." He answered.

'How dare this creature say that to me!' Her body stiffened and she forced her wings not to shake with rage. This was not the first time her looks had been insulted but she had never been treated with such outright dismissal by any man. Something she had no intention of making a regular occurrence.

"Hurry, while he's distracted." Genma tried to pull her back through the doorway but she pulled herself out of his grasp.

"You think to insult me, male?" She stomped her right foot and squared her shoulders. "And to insult my mother? I'll give you one chance to apologize and beg for my forgiveness." She demanded. Receiving no response other than the Tendos and her father all trying to tell her to stop she crossed her arms.

"Very well." She relaxed her stance, standing with all the dignity that her station required, Michiko began to speak in halting unpracticed infernal. "**Zeg wgejvnjv hwe dmpvrhlgi ez repil Ageha N spgil oep rljsl, je weamji fedo wnbb oep hepsr, je dnigliwlszpbb wegd wnbb glmsr mj lmg, je beec oep vnwl wnbb njiwngl zlmg.**" (1)

Completely drained from her spell, she collapsed towards the floor, but was caught by her father before her knees could touch the wood. The target of her curse hadn't reacted in the slightest, continuing to sip tea as though nothing had happened.

"What did you do?" Genma was able to drag her from the room without resistance.

"Oh nothing much." She smiled cruelly. "I just cursed him so he can't touch, insult, or ogle any woman." Michiko explained, remembering that to get this curse on her home plane was akin to dying for any man.

"You have to get rid of it, right now!" He lifted her completely off the ground to carry back towards the living room.

"I will most certainly not." Gathering her remaining energy, she flew out of his arms to land unsteadily on the wooden floor. "After what he did to my mother and how he just insulted me?" She scoffed.

"Daughter, you do not understand. You just took away the Master's purpose in life. Without girls for him to grope, ogle, and steal their underwear, who knows what he'll do?" Genma explained frantically as though the world was going to end.

"It's perfect then." She could imagine how happy this turn of events would make her mother.

"I think it's great." Akane interrupted, glancing back nervously after following them out into the hall. "Lasts forever I hope?"

"Until it gets removed." She answered, proud that she had been able to cast the complex spell on such short notice.

"Daughter please remove it." Genma pleaded, getting down on his hands and knees. "This will only bring disaster!"

"No." She responded simply before turning to Akane. "Are you ready to get started?"

Akane nodded shyly. "Yes, I got the ingredients you said from the market yesterday."

"Daughter you can't do anything other than cure the Master right now." Genma demanded of her. "Wait— what are you two doing?"

"I was going to help Akane with her cooking." She smiled brightly at the chance to show off her culinary skills since back home their men were responsible for all of the food preparation .

"Oh—." Her father's eyes darted between the living room and Akane. "Alright, save Akane first then the cure. Did you have some kind of spell to make her food edible?" Michiko winced as her father was once again flattened to the floor, this time by Akane.

'Why are Mortals so violent?' She grimaced.

* * *

Lutansk

Ranma had been disappointed that Kiima hadn't been awake for her visit but magical healing was often described as a traumatic process. Forcing flesh and bone to heal at such a rapid speed could easily be worse than doing nothing. In the hands of an unskilled practitioner it would drastically shorten lives. So she could understand why Kiima was being kept from further stress until fully recovered.

However, she didn't understand why there was a small crowd of people waiting outside the door leading up to her apartment. She could see that many of them had various sized packages held in their hands. Kasumi seemed less troubled than her by the crowd, like this was now a common thing.

"Do you know what's up?" She whispered to her roommate.

"Gifts for you." Kasumi answered with false enthusiasm. "Glares for me."

Ranma was shocked by the reverence being given to her. She was being presented with gifts of various sizes and most kept their heads down after bowing to her, refusing to meet her eye. They did spend a great deal of time introducing themselves as though she would remember them in the future. Without knowing how to respond, she nervously thanked them, and used her two Phoenix guards as pack mules for all the gifts.

She thought some semblance of normalcy would return after the door to her apartment was closed but that hope was dashed by the pile of gifts taking up much of the floor. "We might need a bigger place." She remarked, finding the kneeling cushion Kasumi had made for her, and placed a drowsy Saffron on it. The baby tried to keep hold of her hand for a moment before laying still.

"Favian said he was going to bring us several bags of holding." Kasumi answered, offering the two Phoenix guards something to drink but they refused and returned to guarding the door from the outside. "I didn't feel right sorting through it." The other Tiefling fretted.

"You think I do?" Being showered with gifts and gratitude was throwing her for a loop. Picking up a nice looking deep green tunic with delicate golden edging, Ranma guessed she could get used to free stuff. Throwing the garment over her shoulder, she found herself face to face with a large white weasel that was perched on a roll of green fabric.

"Did someone give us this?" She pointed to the creature.

"Huh? No." Kasumi answered worriedly. "Where do you think it came from?"

"Hello." The weasel spoke in a childish girl's voice and quirked its head to one side inquisitively.

"A talking weasel?" Ranma raised an eyebrow.

"My name is Hana and I was sent to deliver you a message." The white furred weasel introduced.

"Oh! You're a familiar aren't you." Kasumi announced happily and knelt down next to Ranma excitedly. "I read about them at the library." She explained after Ranma gave her a curious glance.

"I am— Michiko of house Ageha is my master." Hana politely bowed her head towards Ranma then Kasumi.

"I don't like it." Pepa interrupted, glaring at the familiar with her wings fluttering angrily. "It's up to something."

"Delivering a message." Hana answered the fairies accusation haughtily. "It's for my master's sister." She nodded her head towards Ranma.

"Well what did she want?" She asked, curious over the message and what other high forms of magic Michiko had been hiding from her. Hana's form lost consistency and she vanished into a puff of white smoke that reformed into a copy of Michiko the same size as her weasel form.

Michiko's copy waved happily._ "Hi Ranma! How's my big sister doing?"_ There was a pause. _"Or are you back to being my brother? Well either way, I've been trying to get a hold of you but nothings came back yet. I'm hoping it was just because I was using summoned creatures."_ Another pause. _"Who I'm sure you know can be so unreliable. So I'm sending one last message with my familiar Hana. Me and mom are both well, she decided it'd be good for me to spend some more time here on the Mortal plane. It's been fun so far but I could really do without this cold. Brr."_ The copy hugged herself and shivered.

"_Hopefully you'll get back before we head back home because it would be great if you'd come visit. See all the things you've been missing." _ The copy winked suggestively causing Ranma to blush briefly._ "Just in case you don't know, if you want to send a message back, just tell Hana that you have a message for me, and she'll bring it right back. Well I look forward to hearing back from you." _Michiko crossed her arms and glared angrily towards her. _"And I know Hana will find you so you better respond."_

Message apparently completed, the clone of Michiko dissolved back into smoke before forming into Hana again. "That was the message." The familiar concluded. "Would you like for me to return one?"

"I bet it's an evil plot of some kind!" Pepa proclaimed before Ranma could respond. "How can you trust that it's even from your demon sister?"

"Pepa, stop it." Kasumi chastised the fairy, who was for once not the only spell creature in the room.

"I don't really know what to say." Ranma answered Hana, scratching just behind one of her horns. "Let me think." It made her feel good that her sister had bothered to send not one but several messengers to try and communicate with her.

"There is no rush." Hana bowed her head respectfully. "I will wait as long as necessary."

The ermine approached to sit a close distance from her and stare up at her with big black eyes. Ranma blinked several times at the expectant look on the white familiars face. "Uh— are you hungry?" She asked, realizing that the familiar had traveled all the way from Nerima. Hana's head nodded before rapidly spinning in a circle.

"Do you have any eggs?" Hana asked in her childish voice.

"I'll go get you a couple." Kasumi offered and stood up to head for the icebox, Hana bounding after her happily.

"I don't trust her." Pepa whispered in her ear.

Ranma eyed the fairy, who hadn't acted like this in over a month. "Is it because she was sent by my sister?" She asked teasingly before taking a closer look at Pepa's aura without the barrier interfering and saw that it was no longer purely divine.

"Of course, she's a Tiefling." The blue haired fairy nodded her head rapidly.

"She's my sister." She scowled, angry that Pepa was slipping back into bad habits. "Quit trying to be a banishment spell." Ranma reached up and tugged lightly on the fairy's spade tail. "Sides, aren't you a little bit infernal now?"

"It's just a tail!" Pepa protested with a pout, hands futily going behind her back as though to hide the appendage. Rushing off to a small spot atop a shelf that she had claimed as her own tiny room, the fairy yelled back to her. "And you never get me eggs!"

'Weird.' Ranma rolled her eyes. Checking to make sure Saffron was still sleeping, she glanced at the kitchen area to see Kasumi serving Hana a bowl filled with several eggs. Everything seemed to have reached a point of normalcy so she returned to inspecting some of her gifts. Her mind preoccupied with what kind of message to send back to her sister.

* * *

Several hours later

Waiting patiently after knocking on the door, Favian glanced backwards at the Phoenix who were blocking the steps just before Kasumi answered his knock, and invited him in. Immediately he noticed the significant piles of gifts from well wishers that were being organized by Ranma. Kasumi was holding the infant Saffron who gave him a surprisingly suspicious look for a baby. Judging by the glow emanating from behind a small piece of cloth, Pepa had retreated to her small corner atop a bookshelf.

"Kasumi, why is there a ferret running around your apartment?" He asked, watching a white furred ermine shoot between positions, roll on the floor, then head off to another spot bouncing happily.

"Well—." Kasumi paused to glance at the ferret. "She's a familiar and seems a little overcharged from the ambient magic." The blonde explained while laughing nervously.

"A familiar?" He asked. Neither of the two females knew how to make their own familiar although they should be more than capable of it. If one of them had taken the initiative to research the process then he would be exceedingly proud at how far they had progressed in such a short time.

"My sister's." Ranma spoke up in a soft whisper as she finished sorting through a small wooden box. "Kasumi said you had some extra bags of holding." The Tiefling said without looking at him.

"I do." He answered, giving the familiar one last curious glance before depositing two bags of holding next to Ranma's hip. "I also bring an apology. The other night I forgot myself in the heat of the moment and said things I did not mean. I'm sorry— and I hope you will forgive me." He was trying to sound as apologetic as he could but it came out sounding hollow and rehearsed. When Ranma finally looked at him he bowed his head towards her.

Ranma's eyes bore into him before she snorted and shrugged. "Apology accepted— more than I ever got from either of my parents."

He didn't bother vocalizing another apology for Ranma's family and the choices they made. It was already a sore enough point in Ranma's life that he didn't want to draw anymore attention to it. Taking a subtle look at Ranma's aura, he discreetly checked to see if there were any lingering spells left to fester on her. Favian had already checked her at the hospital but he was still suspicious something maybe lurking. There was nothing he could see except the protection spell and nothing Ladon ever did was subtle enough to hide this long.

"I'll need some more." Ranma interrupted his thoughts and looked up at him without giving a thank you for the expensive items.

"For?" He raised an eyebrow and slowly knelt down next to the cursed teen, feeling his aging knees protest at the action. "You have more than enough room there to fit everything in this apartment in them."

"I just need them— I'll pay you back three times their worth in a few days." The Tiefling responded evasively.

"Not that I doubt your offer. But those are worth over forty gold a piece." He pointed out, fully expecting the bags of holding to be returned in time. "Where are you going to get that much money in such a short amount of time?" There was one place he could think of but found it hard to believe Ranma would be so quiet about finding Ladon's hoard but now was hardly the time to press for information.

"Do you trust me or not?" Ranma asked, looking up at him daring him to say no.

"I have two more you can use, you can pick them up when you come for dinner tonight." He offered, not wanting to take the bait. "I think a little celebration is in order."

"That sounds wonderful." Kasumi came over to kneel across from him and Ranma. "Should I bring anything?"

"Of course not." He chuckled, watching the familiar rush over to circle Kasumi once before finally stopping directly in front of him. "So you are Michiko's familiar." He summarized, the ermine looking up at him, and nodding its head so quickly it was a blur.

"I'm Hana! I'm Hana! I'm Hana!" She greeted excitedly without any pause in a little girls voice.

"Is she going to be alright?" Ranma asked worriedly. "Maybe it's not good for her to be around the ley line."

"She should be fine." He patted the creature on her head. "She just isn't used to having all the magic to feed off of. Do you mind telling me her purpose?"

"Just a message from my sister asking how I was." The redhead sighed. "I don't know what to send back, do you have any ideas?" She asked no one in particular.

"Why not just that you're alive and well?" Kasumi suggested and Ranma just shrugged in non-commital.

"I think something more personal is warranted." He added, not knowing all that much about Michiko but Ranma seemed to view her in a positive light.

"Hana, do you think you could send a message back for me as well?" Kasumi asked the familiar who nodded rapidly.

"I'm not sure." The ferret seemed to slow down for a moment. "Yup I can!" Hana agreed to Kasumi's request and happily bounced in place.

Favian caught a dark look cross Ranma's face at Kasumi, the smaller tiefling opening her mouth as to say something before she was overcome by a coughing fit. Ranma hacked violently into her hands, interrupted Kasumi delivering a message to Hana. The redhead curled up tightly as her chest heaved, her large wings flared with each cough, knocking over a donated antique oil lamp to spill its contents over the floor.

"Ranma!" Kasumi exclaimed in alarm sliding across the floor to hover helplessly for several seconds before Ranma's coughing fit ended. "Are you alright?" She asked tentatively as Ranma pulled her hands away from her mouth to reveal several specks of blood on her palms.

"Kasumi, please tend to the oil." He instructed, seeing that his relative was starting to panic. "I'll get Ranma back to the hospital."

"I'm fine." Ranma wheezed, finding a cheap looking piece of fabric to hastily wipe the blood off her hands. "Really." She tried to reassure at his dubious stare. "Not like they could do anything anyways."

"Unfortunately." He sighed, moving to the side to allow Kasumi access to clean up the lamp oil. "How embarrassing, my student being so inept at controlling herself." He lamented dramatically, trying to lighten the mood slightly.

"Don't talk like my Pop." Ranma's eyes fell and her wings slumped. "Sorry about the mess, Kasumi."

"It's alright, so long as you're fine, that's all that matters." The blonde answered, mopping up the thick liquid.

"I wish he was here." The redhead turned in place to put the piles of gifts behind her and pulled her knees up to her chest. "This is all his fault after all."

"Your current situation would be your fault." He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder to be reassuring but Ranma caught his wrist.

"I accepted your apology, I didn't say you could touch me." She warned softly before releasing him.

"Right." He nodded, realizing that his words from the other night had done more damage than intended. "I did want to ask you about your battle with Ladon."

"He's dead, isn't that enough?" Ranma snapped as best she could with her soft voice, shoulders jerking with a small cough.

"You know through experience that Ladon had spells for mind control, I just want to know you weren't exposed to any of them." He explained seriously.

"So what if he did try one? I obviously stopped them from working otherwise I wouldn't have shoved a void spear through his skull." She answered evenly like it had been an everyday event.

"Even a little bit is too much. Answer me seriously." Favian tried to make eye contact with her but Ranma kept looking away. "Did he cast such a spell on you?"

"No— he tried, but I killed him before he could use it." Ranma finally admitted, still not meeting his eye. "I don't want to talk about it anymore." She warned. "I don't understand why everyone is bugging me to talk about it. He's dead, his kids are dead, I won." The Tiefling finally looked him square in the eye with a hollow glare. "What else is there to talk about?"

"Alright." He sighed, wishing he hadn't destroyed Ranma's trust because he knew that Ladon had cast such a spell but he could not know the result. "Then relax and enjoy your victory. I'll see you tonight." His knees protested as he rose back to a standing position. "Kasumi would you see me out?"

"Of course." His great granddaughter answered, sharing a look of concern with him that Ranma couldn't see.

When they were all the way down the steps and away from the Phoenix standing guard, he finally addressed Kasumi. "Are you up to helping Ranma get through this?" His hand picked doctor was going to be visiting to try and give Ranma a neutral person to confide in. But Kasumi lived with the cursed teen and was the closest to his other former student.

"I think so." Kasumi admitted tentatively. "Are you sure Ranma's alright?"

"I think Ranma has been forced to endure a traumatic event she was not truly ready for and needs support, even if it's just you continuing to be a friend." Favian cursed his brother and himself for creating such monstrous spells.

"I'll try my best, grandfather." Kasumi squared her shoulders confidently before glancing nervously back towards the steps. "Ranma's my friend and I won't let her down."

"I know you will." Favian allowed himself a moment to hope that everything would in fact work out for the best. "And don't forget to take care of yourself, Ranma's not the only one who's important."

"Thank you again." She bowed to him. "I look forward to tonight."

* * *

Later that day

Ranma didn't remember falling asleep but she had been very tired after the gift sorting had finished. She assumed Kasumi had shoved a pillow under her head and covered her with a blanket. What had woken her was a pair of high pitched voices arguing animatedly next to her head.

"What are you two fighting about now?" Ranma asked blearily and rubbed at her eyes, noticing that Saffron had been sleeping in a makeshift crib constructed of her pillow for kneeling and some boxes placed around it.

"Oh good you're up, I wanted to ask if you had a message yet?" Hana asked, hopping around Pepa who had been hovering between them.

"I told this demon— thing that you needed to sleep." Pepa protested and tried to shove Hana away.

"I don't have a message yet." Ranma answered the familiar and coughed lightly into her hand.

"See! See!" Pepa was finally able to push the much larger Hana slightly away. "She needs rest not you bothering her!"

"I'm not bothering her, you are!" Hana contorted around Pepa to run back and sit in front of Ranma.

"That's it!" Pepa exclaimed and raised both hands over her head, a glowing red mallet appearing within her grasp before swinging it down to impact with the top of Hana's head. "Demon be gone!" Hana vanished in a puff of smoke and Ranma's jaw dropped in shock.

Pepa blinked repeatedly at the spot where Hana had been sitting before dropping her little mallet. "I did it." A huge smile spread over the fairies face. "I did it!" She shouted and started to fly around the room screaming about how she had finally banished someone.

Saffron stirred in his crib at the fairy's exuberance, catching Ranma's attention. "Pepa, quiet down." She said in a loud whisper with a small cough, unable to raise her voice further.

"But I did it!" Pepa rushed over to flutter close to Ranma's face. "I banished that demon creature!"

Before Ranma could chastise Pepa for actually succeeding at her original purpose, there was a soft pop above the fairy, and with a puff of white smoke Hana reappeared. The weasel caught Pepa's head and shoulders in her mouth before falling to the floor. "Gah you!" Hana slurred proudly as Pepa struggled to pull herself free.

"That's enough." She snapped, glaring at her sister's familiar. "Let her go."

Hana wilted under Ranma's tone and opened her mouth enough for Pepa to wiggle free. "Sorry."

"I'm sticky again!" Pepa bemoaned, trying to wipe saliva off her face. This was the final straw to wake Saffron up who started to cry loudly and squirm around.

Ranma grabbed both of the spell creatures, Hana by the scruff of her neck, and Pepa by the legs to stomp over to the door. "B icker all you want out here." She released the two outside at the top of the steps and slammed the door in their faces.

"You're fine." She groaned and picked Saffron up to try her best at getting him to calm down again.

* * *

"Awww." Pepa kicked at an imaginary rock in midair. "You weren't really banished were you?" She asked the familiar.

"Nope nope." Hana chirped and sat down.

"Awww." She repeated, wishing she had something to wipe away Hana's saliva. Once again, the very thing she had been made to do, was the thing that she could not do. Maybe Ranma was right and she should stop trying to be a banishment spell, if she had ever really been. It had never endeared her to either Ranma or Kasumi.

"I can't get my message if I stay out here." Hana pouted.

'And if she gets that message then she'll leave.' Pepa realized, a plan to act friendly with the familiar quickly forming within her mind. "If we don't fight, Ranma won't throw us out again." She pointed out.

"I don't know, sometimes when they're with babies, Succubae can be mean." Hana responded doubtfully in a small voice.

"Then it's a good thing Ranma's only half!" She smiled brightly.

"That's true." The weasel gave her the equivalent of a smile and chittered happily.

"Now we just need to get in." She crossed her arms and scrunched up her face in thought.

"Oh that's easy." Hana smirked and ducked under the door. Squirming and struggling to get through the small space, the weasel's tail finally vanishing to the other side. Several seconds later, the doorknob turned, and swung open to reveal Hana perched on the handle. "Ta da!"

"Why didn't you just do that from the outside?" Pepa asked curiously, floating upwards to look Hana in the eye. "It wasn't locked."

"This was funner." The white furred weasel answered before dropping down from the door knob to run towards Ranma.

* * *

Ranma took several slow breaths as deeply as she could before she would begin coughing and pointedly ignored the two magical beings who were attempting to be perfectly quiet now that Saffron was once again asleep. Changing the size of her wings had been one of the earliest things she had ever learned about this body. Without the barrier, her expanded reserves of infernal magic made the process incredibly unwieldy. Like she was trying to balance a pin on a table while someone continually shook it.

"What are you trying to do?" Hana asked, interrupting her concentration and completely ruining the state she had been cultivating.

Sighing, she slowly looked towards her sister's familiar. "I am trying—." She paused in annoyance. "To shrink my wings."

"Michiko always uses all of her aura to do that." Hana didn't pick up on Ranma's irritation. "Are you doing it a new way?"

"Well— no." Ranma blinked several times. Up until becoming Favian's student she had never been able to tell what part of her aura she had used to accomplish body modifications. With the barrier in place, she had completely ignored it because her infernal side was being completely suppressed, and she had avoided any kind of changes.

It seemed too obvious, but after just a moment she was able to feel her wings shrink. She had to keep concentrating due to her overall lack of control of her aura now, but it was working. Experimentally spreading the extra appendages, she let them relax again before she lost her concentration. Maintaining this state would take some getting used to, it was like she was trying to flex her bicep and tricep at the same time, while still trying to move her arm.

Ranma felt embarrassed over having to take advice from a cute little familiar but she had been doing it wrong. "Thanks Hana." She finally decided to at least acknowledge the spell creatures contribution.

"Welcome." Hana gushed and received a brief jealous glare from Pepa. "You have a party tonight right? What are you going to wear? Huh? Huh?"

"I'm just going over to Favian's." She shrugged, having had other more important things on her mind.

"Shouldn't you look nice?" The weasel quirked her head to one side.

"Ranma always looks nice!" Pepa butted in too loudly before catching herself and glancing nervously at Saffron who remained asleep. "Right?" She asked quietly.

"Well I have time, maybe I can see if I got anything that fits." Her chest puffed up a bit in pride and she couldn't stop a small smile from spreading across her face. "Some of my stuff is getting pretty worn." She commented while picking at the well worn fabric of her male tunic, and walked over to the pile of clothing she had separated earlier.

* * *

Kasumi wasn't sure on how she should feel about the scene that greeted her upon returning to her apartment. The baby Saffron was happily giggling from his perch on a cushion as Hana and Pepa argued about whether or not Ranma should wear pants. Hana was winning this argument because she was running around with the article of clothing while Pepa chased her. Ranma herself was standing by holding a blue garment, looking thoroughly disgusted by the two magical creatures as they feuded.

Ranma was also naked as the day she was born, though that wasn't really the best phrase to describe the redhead. Blushing fiercely and averting her eyes from the cursed teen's form, she coughed into her hand. "Having fun?" She asked with a bit of amusement.

"Little bit." Ranma answered with a shrug, shifting her weight onto one hip. "My wings are— I guess as back to normal as having them at all gets." The redhead pointed out.

"That's good, but is there are reason you're naked?" Kasumi asked, uncomfortable with Ranma's casual nudity. Even if it was normal for her roommate to forget clothing around the home. "We'll need to leave for Favian's soon."

"Well I am trying to get dressed." Ranma answered and pointed at the magical beings. "But they keep getting in the way. And it's way too cold out to not to wear pants." She snatched a pair of black slacks from a disappointed Hana. "Thought I'd see if anything I got would fit since I had time."

"And they're helping?" She asked dubiously, glancing at Pepa who had moved to hover nearby and Hana who was sitting near Ranma's hooves.

"Live and learn." Ranma shrugged.

* * *

Ranma stopped to look upwards, her eyes tracing the line of destruction that arced down the side of a building to the ground where the spell had lost its consistency and exploded. When simple spells no longer had a will controlling them the power simply expended itself as quickly as possible. She had learned that the hard way by having many of her early spells explode in her face. Since no one else had been throwing around spells of this magnitude, that left either Raxus or herself as the originator.

"Something wrong?" Pepa asked from Ranma's left.

"Just thinking." She answered absently before turning away from the ruined building. Hana was trotting along near her hooves, occasionally vanishing to check out something that caught the familiar's eye. Kasumi volunteered to carry Saffron in case Ranma suffered anymore coughing fits. And because Ranma thought it threw off the Phoenix guards who were still suspicious of Kasumi.

In the heat of battle she had been throwing around spells bigger and smaller than the one that had caused this without a second thought. If anyone had been nearby they would have been killed. Control over her physical strength had been drilled into her head to the point where it was instinctual. This was unacceptable, the danger posed by magic was simply too great to be so frivolous with its use. A punch could only do so much, a fireball could kill dozens.

The elevator up to the Park area had been destroyed at some point, so they had to take the steps instead. There were an increased number of guards keeping watch over the access point. Before the attack they would hassle either her or Kasumi about going up into the school only area. This time they greeted her with muted gratitude and gave her a wide berth to pass. Not knowing how to respond, she just nodded her head towards each of them.

"It's almost as though nothing happened—." Kasumi commented as they were walking around the undamaged park towards Favian's home. "If you ignore the big toppled over tower that is."

"Yea." Ranma trailed off, glancing at the broken spire. The top portion had fallen in the opposite direction but she could still see some of it over the tree line. Most of the destruction was contained to the side of the city facing Ladon's volcano, but agents of the Dragon had been busy setting fires and causing destruction around the city before they could be stopped.

Strangely, it was Favian who met them at the door rather than any of his servants. "You're late." He teasingly chastised, stepping back to allow them entry.

"Ranma's turning into quite the clotheshorse." Kasumi's mouth quirked into a smile. "Wouldn't leave the house without just the right outfit."

"That's not true!" She protested as loudly as she could and glanced away evasively. 'Just hard to pick sometimes.' Ranma admitted to herself. "Anyone is a clotheshorse compared to you, you have like three dresses." She taunted back, trying to draw attention away from her vanity.

"Because I don't spend my time ruining them." Kasumi shifted Saffron in her arms after he started to squirm.

"I was joking." Favian gestured towards the interior. "You can return to your families." He commanded the two Phoenix.

"My Lord, we can't shun our duty." The Phoenix on the left, Ratha answered.

"Good luck with that." Ranma snorted. "I keep telling them to leave me alone but they aren't going to leave him."

"No harm will befall your Lord Saffron." Favian asserted. "And I will not have you hovering at my door or inside my home. Now leave and enjoy the evening because I will not repeat myself." He punctuated his command by closing the door roughly in their faces. "You're lucky to have such a dedicated people." The orange eyed man poked at a smug looking Saffron's stomach briefly before moving into his home.

"I feel bad for them." Kasumi glanced out a nearby window. "They're just going to go stand by the gate in the cold."

"Saffron is incredibly important to them." Favian commented. "He's hope for their future even if the path to rebuilding their people will be long and difficult."

"Then they should hurry up and decide who gets him." Ranma honestly didn't know why they were taking so long.

"Maybe they can't find anyone better?" The elderly man shrugged. "So they have made a decision and are just trying to figure out a way to tell you."

"They better not have!" She tried to shout , her voice falling off suddenly. "I can't be stuck with him!"

"It's a good thing you can still take a joke." Favian smirked, earning a very dark glare from her. "What? You're the hero of the city. Compared to you, all the Phoenix are lacking."

"I know I can do more than anyone else here." Ranma's eyes fell to the floor. "But if I hadn't been here, someone else would have done it. Something else would have come up." She wanted to add that if it wasn't for that woman removing her fear she would have been unable to do anything. But it would be admitting just how scared she had been of Raxus to accept such a deal. "I'm not the hero you're all making me out to be."

"Kasumi, I think we're in luck." Favian looked like he wanted to reach out again and pat her on the back but refrained. "We'll be able to fit in the same room as Ranma's ego tonight."

'Ass.' Ranma simmered at her difficult confession being turned into a joke.

* * *

The Next Morning

Ranma was surprised to be woken up early by a group of eight Phoenix at her door. She recognized several of them but didn't know all of their names. There were three men and one woman dressed in full armor with various bladed weapons. The others were in casual clothing and one carried a small bag. Unsure of what the sudden visit meant, she invited them in.

"Did you really need to bring those?" She asked, eyes lingering on the weapons.

"While we cannot hope to repay your service in returning our Lord Saffron to us, we don't wish to impose upon you to protect him further." An elderly Phoenix with long feathers swept back from his head bowed respectfully to her while leaning on a cane. The pheasant man was the highest ranking Phoenix left, second only to Saffron, and kept his name secret.

"You're welcome." She tried to sound gracious for their praise but didn't know what was expected in this kind of situation. Truthfully she suspected they didn't either, so she would just wing it if they were.

"He's been no problem at all." Kasumi added while holding the infant Saffron.

"Still, he needs to be back among his own people."

"So how does that happen?" Ranma asked. "If I'm out of sight he won't stop crying."

"With one of these." The pheasant man carefully held up an egg. "Short of reverting him back to an egg once again, this is the only method to change who he is imprinted on."

"And who gets him?" She asked, wanting to know that he would be in good hands.

A female Phoenix in her early twenties that Ranma didn't recognize stepped forward and bowed to her. "I've been selected to care for Lord Saffron, my name is Cassia." Her wings, a mix of bright gold and black, shifted nervously as she waited for some unspoken judgement.

"I thought you were waiting for Kiima?" Ranma asked rudely. She didn't know this woman and would have prefered someone that she did.

"Lady Kiima is indisposed as you know and waiting will only make the process more difficult." The elderly Phoenix answered. "Is there a problem?"

"No, no problem." She answered uneasily, glancing at Saffron. "So what do we have to do?"

"We need only a small amount of space. The egg will be broken near him and it will form a new shell around him. When this is broken, he will imprint upon the first person he sees."

"Seems easy enough." She nodded, not feeling particularly positive about this. Saffron had accidentally imprinted upon her and would now be purposely given no choice. "Does it ever wear off?"

"No, the imprinting is forever." The pheasant man answered as he instructed the Phoenix to spread out except for Cassia before he addressed Kasumi. "My Lady, please place him in the open area between us."

"I'll do it." Ranma volunteered and took the infant from Kasumi. "It's only right— he locked on to me after all— right?" She added at Kasumi's curious stare.

Gently placing the baby in the center of the Phoenix, Ranma found it wasn't that easy as he clutched at her tunic, not wanting to leave her side. "All you have to do is sit here, so be good." Patting him on the head, she took several steps back. Saffron seemed to think it was a game because he crawled towards her while giggling happily and tiny wings fluttering.

"I don't think he's going to sit still." She laughed to herself and picked him up again.

"You'll just have to hold him." The elderly Phoenix instructed, placing the small egg down on the floor. "Step away as soon as I crush it or you'll be caught in the shell as well." He told her, tapping the floor with his cane.

"Alright." She nodded and knelt down to hold him in place. "Guess this is it." Ranma smiled down at the infant. Saffron's red orange eyes stared up at her in joy at being held by her. "Be good for Casio." She added, her voice catching.

"It's Cassia." The Phoenix corrected softly.

"Now would be the time to move away." The pheasant themed Phoenix said and brought his cane down to crush the egg he had placed on the floor.

Ranma's first instinct was to pull Saffron away from the gooey fibrous strings that exploded out of the egg to latch onto the baby. Seeing the look of terror in his eyes as he cried out while struggling to reach out to her, she immediately began to prepare a fire spell to burn away the strings and free him.

Two hands grabbed her by the shoulders and forcibly turned her away from Saffron being swallowed up as he screamed for help. Seeing that it was Kasumi stopping her, Ranma buried her face in the larger girl's chest, trying desperately to cover her ears to block out his cries.

"Do not fret." The elderly Phoenix man told her after Saffron's voice was abruptly cut off as the egg closed fully. "He won't remember this."

'I'd rather not as well.' She thought darkly and tried to bury the image of Saffron being swallowed by the egg. "This isn't hurting him, is it?" She had not carried him from Ladon's volcano just to have be hurt by his own people.

"He's already fast asleep, there's no physical pain. Cassia, break the shell and make sure you're the first one he sees." He ordered.

The woman nodded and knelt reverently at Saffron's egg. Running her claws along the surface delicately, she suddenly dug them in to break the shell. Scratching a circle into the egg, Cassia slowly pulled the material away to reveal Saffron sleeping within. Turning the egg so that he was facing her, the Phoenix woman pulled more of the egg away.

"My Lord, it's time to wake up." Cassia whispered reverently and places her clawed hands on either side of his head.

Ranma watched the infants eyes open as though he had been in a deep sleep, latching on to the first figure that he saw in Cassia. 'I don't want to watch this.' She realized and moved away, purposely ignoring what was going on. Kasumi followed and stood nearby in a show of emotional support.

She paid no mind to the Phoenix as they gathered up the discarded egg shell and began to file out of her apartment. Ranma couldn't help but watch as Cassia carried Saffron out, the infant giving her only a brief glance of recognition. The elderly Phoenix man nearly made her jump out of her skin as he patted her on the lower back.

"You have our eternal thanks." His eyes twinkled in amusement at her reaction. "The Phoenix are forever in your debt."

"Yea well you better raise him right." She scoffed, feeling sick over what the Phoenix could do with magic eggs.

"He is the light of our people, we do not take this lightly." He responded, offended at her insinuation.

"Sorry." Ranma knew from talking with Kiima how important Saffron was to them. It could be taken as a grave insult to insinuate that they would mistreat him. Even if Ranma thought that was what they had done with the egg.

"All is forgiven, we can't expect an outsider to understand." The pheasant man replied.

"Then did you need anything else?" She questioned with more force than she wanted, eager to be done with this matter, and for them to leave immediately.

"No— we could not possibly ask anymore of you."

* * *

Author Notes

1 - For wronging two daughters of house Ageha I curse you hence, no womans body will you touch, no disrespectful word will reach an ear, no look you give will inspire fear.

I apologize for the delay in getting this out, a couple other stores are always trying for my attention and this was supposed to be much longer and completely conclude the Lutansk portion. But I've decided to chop it into two rather than cut content as more and more scenes started to pile up.


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